Dharma Productions, known for its well planned movies and remarkable success ratio returns to the screen with a strong thriller supported by a fiery star-cast and an eye catching promotional campaign. The controversial posters in the news and the secrecy regarding its story plot surely helped in creating a buzz for the movie before its release. So everybody was forced to expect yet another well made movie from Karan Johar’s production house with a unique kind of storyline never told before on the screen.

But the final outcome has got a completely different story to tell which also raises many questions on the cut-throat competition between various big banners of the industry. Undeniably, “Kurbaan” is a well crafted thriller with its brilliant direction and visibly grand production values. It has its own worth seeing moments along with some superb thought provoking sequences relevant to the current scenario in the western countries. But the real shocking revelation is its story plot which is strikingly similar to “New York”.

In fact it’s like Kabir Khan and Karan Johar got hold of a similar idea and then wrote two different scripts with minor changes as per their own film-making styles.

In order to prove my point, here are the similarities between the two movies, which unfortunately would also reveal the storyline of “Kurbaan”.

1. “New York” has got two students (John & Katrina) falling in love with each other and later living a happily married life abroad. Here John plays a muslim character who is secretly working for the pride of his religion and planning a big disaster in the city.  

In “Kurbaan” instead of students there are two professors (Saif & Kareena) in the college, who fall in love with each other, get married and settle abroad in order to lead a happy life. Here Saif plays the muslim character who is a wanted terrorist in disguise and also planning for a big disaster in the city.

2. In both the movies the lady of the house (Katrina or Kareena) doesn’t know about the real identity of her husband which is later discovered by her as a shock of her life. 

3. “New York” has Neil Nitin Mukesh working on a secret mission, who enters John’s gang with a different identity and tries to catch him before the big disaster planned with the help of FBI.

In “Kurbaan” there is Vivek Oberoi who after losing her love in a bomb blast plans to enter Saif’s gang with a different identity aiming to get him behind the bars with the help of FBI.

4. “New York” has Irfan Khan playing the role of an FBI officer helping Neil, whereas in “New York” the role is not that significant played by a foreign actor who is talking with Vivek on phone in the climax.

5. In both the films, the new entrant in the gang is given a test to pass where he is asked to shoot an unknown man just like that without any reason.

6. Both the movies have a similar sequence where a gang member from the extremists group panics when few policemen start searching his car and ask him to get out. In both sequences the man loses his life due to the unexpected emotional reaction.

7.  In “New York” John suspects Neil talking with someone on the phone and then takes away his phone saying that no-one will use any phone from now on.

In “Kurbaan” Om Puri suspects Vivek talking with somebody on phone and then takes away his phone again saying that no-one will use any phone from now on.

8. Both the movies gradually move towards a big disaster planned by the terrorist in the end which also results in their leader getting killed by the police. Both John & Saif get killed in the climax in strikingly similar circumstances.

In short, if you have seen “New York” then you have already seen “Kurbaan” in a different version. However both the movies hold their own distinctive merits due to their respective talented directors. “New York” was more definitive and expressive in its characterisation, romance and songs. On the other hand “Kurbaan” is more intense, exciting and well executed as a fine thriller with some creditable performances by all the three leading characters.

Saif once again delivers a polished performance as the terrorist. Kareena gives him tough competition with a superb portrayal of a helpless girl caught in the web of terrorism. Vivek also shines bright after a long gap in his important role of an informer cum reporter. Dia Mirza looks ravishing in her few scenes. Om Puri is top rate as usual but the most impressive supporting act comes from Kiron Kher in the role of an angry muslim lady ready to fight for her revenge.

Unexpectedly the musical score by Salim-Sulieman is not up to the standards of Karan Johar productions with no particular song standing out with its melody. But, Cinematography clearly gives the movie an international look by all standards. It also seems that the movie was specifically made for the overseas market and metro cities. There is heavy use of English language in the movie with one particular scene of a seminar having conversations going on in English for a good period of time.

Writing also has got too many flaws in it with things moving on very easily without any complications. For instance, two mature professors go on flirting with each other freely in the staff room and class rooms within the college campus (which was like the creative liberty taken for a ride). Saif easily gets Visas for abroad without any hassles and he even gets a professor’s job in the foreign university just like that. Kareena takes out the bullet out of Saif’s wound in few seconds and even applies stitches to it like a pro. There are shoot outs going on and people moving fearlessly holding a gun in the tube train with no trace of any policemen around. Even the hot bed room scene between Saif and Kareena looks like deliberately added later on and also seems to be edited in a great hurry. It lacks the warmth as one recalls in the similar scenes from “Parinda” and “Dayavan”. Hence at some places the execution goes too filmy, far below the expectations from a Dharma Productions movie.

However, what impressed me the most were the well written, explosive dialogues in the script which may be taken as offensive by many. They surely had the truth spoken in the most blunt way ever on the Indian Silver Screen. In short, director Rensil D’Silva undoubtedly proves his command over the medium with his noticeable directorial debut, but I am still confused why they made a movie on the same storyline of “New York”. With a different story plot it surely could have been the finest thriller of the recent times.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

(by bobbysing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com)  

When you are going to see a movie which has already impressed you with its outstanding trailer, then it’s obvious to expect something great and out of the ordinary. That was the state I was in while entering the theater to watch 2012. Excitingly waiting for the movie to start, I had many questions in mind about how the director will tackle the various ongoing problems of the world while showcasing the Ultimate End of our civilization? And majorly what will be his take on the famous religions of the world when the characters will be talking about their Final Moments?

And to my surprise the movie took off from our part of the world in 1999, where an Indian Geologist religiously named Dr. Satnam, discovers that the Earth is heating up to an extent that is causing a shift in its tectonic plates. He passes on the news of this deadly discovery to his American friend Dr. Adria, who straight away takes it to the White House as an emergency situation. Coming back to the future in 2012, the movie plunges into the amazing graphical world where the earth is sinking due to the high density earthquakes and all the historical monuments are falling left and right like lifeless toys.

Visually it’s a fabulous portrayal of the End of the World from the director “Roland Emmerich” who is known for his mesmerizing work in his earlier movies such as “Independence Day”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “Godzilla”. The moment you witness the first shattering sequence of the earth making a huge wide gap and everything falling into it, you get transported into a gripping enigmatic world altogether. The spectacular special effects unfolding every 15 minutes in the movie, just keep you glued to the screen with your jaws wide open. The disastrous happenings worldwide, the enormous water tides coming over, the burning volcanic eruptions and ugly tsunamis spreading over the world map just bring on the viewer to the edge of his seat.

Hence, if you are in for some great Computer Graphics and want to see a few terrific nail biting scenes where the heroes are just climbing up before the earth sinks in, then this is the perfect choice to spend your valuable time.

But if you are expecting a great movie, rich on emotional and futuristic content as suggested by the impressive body of work by its director, then you may remain quite unsatisfied at the end. In simple words, 2012, undoubtedly scores high on technical and graphical terms but content wise it falls short of the earlier disaster movies from the director. It lacks the emotional depth in its characterization due to which the viewer is not able to relate with any of the characters fighting with the unwanted situation. In order to cover more number of people on the screen, the script fails to develop any one character in particular, which as a result leaves a very cold kind of impact on the viewer. The movie also tends to become a bit slow at times but bounces back with every new destruction sequence on the screen.

The entire cast delivers fine performances as required by the subject, but they are also handicapped by the poor characterization in the script. John Cusack is pleasant to see but has nothing great written for him in particular. Amanda Peet is just there to give her constant looks of amazement. Danny Glover as the president, Thandie Newton as his daughter, Oliver Platt as the president's chief of staff and Jimi Mistry as Dr. Satnam simply play their parts as directed. Only Chiwetel Ejiofor looks like more concerned about the humanity factor in the movie and makes an impact.

2012 also tends to be repetitive in few sequences which strongly give you a feeling of “seen before”. The movie even reminded me one of the early 80’s disaster movies called “Earthquake”. In fact this time, Emmerich also seems to be inspired by his own masterpieces from the past. He surely surpasses them all in terms of mass destruction of the globe, but talking about the rich emotional quotient of those Hit movies, 2012 comparatively scores quite low. Emmerich, intentionally skips many important questions related to various countries and religions practiced by different people residing all over the globe.

The main drawback of the movie is that even though it revolves around the concept of end of the world and its civilization, still it is unable to frighten you with the scary thought. The movie keeps on impressing you with its exceptional execution constantly but at the same time, fails to take you in on emotional grounds. In a nutshell, it’s a film very rich in the Cinematography and Computer Graphics department, but is also quite unimpressive in its content.

Interestingly the movie ends with a clear message to the World and its entire population. It simply says that “Now is the time that we all have to unite together at the earliest or else the nature will unite us deliberately in its own destructive way.”

Rating : 3 / 5

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Vishesh Films, Kunal Deshmukh & Emraan Hashmi trio is back with another romantic movie written around a plot based on real life. After his successful directorial debut in “Jannat”, this time Kunal tries his hands on a (so called) disaster movie depicting the unforgettable trauma faced by Mumbai on 26th July, 2005. The tough days which are still fresh in the mind of every Mumbaikar, saw Mumbai in a very unimaginable state with a flood like situation leading to huge physical and monetary losses everywhere in the city.

So obviously there were enormous expectations from the movie, coming from a director, who already had a well made realistic movie to his credit. Moreover, “Tum Mile” was also being projected as the first major attempt in the genre of “Disaster Movies” in Hindi Film Industry though its promotional campaign, TV Promos and Posters. But after watching it, you actually feel like cheated by its promoters because the film which was heavily advertised with the scenes depicting the Mumbai Floods, actually has only a few minutes talking about the disaster and too not in a very convincing way.

It starts nicely with a well written in-flight sequence, where both Emraan & Soha get to meet each other after many years and remember the good times spent together in flashbacks. The movie moves ahead following the same pattern of “Jannat” wherein first the romance is established between the lead couple and then the real plot is revealed after a few romantic numbers. But in “Tim Mile”, Kunal stresses too much on the romance part and pays very less attention on the disaster element which actually should have been given the center stage.

Till intermission the narration keeps moving into the past and present lives of the couple and along with that also tries to establish the base for the Flood sequences. But the excessive emphasis on the romance part fails to create the required curiosity level, which is a must for a disaster movie. The strong build-up leading towards the watery climax is simply missing.

Post interval, the viewer becomes desperate of watching the flood stuff and really wants to see how it is done in a Hindi movie, but he still has to wait till the end. The main over-publicized rain scenes actually come only towards the climax and those too finish off too soon without making an impact with no worth seeing graphical creations as expected. In addition to this there is no account of any mass human suffering, pain or loss faced by the people due to that unexpected natural calamity. Though the flood sequences has  been shot competitively in a street set which must have been a tough task for the whole team, but in the end it is too plain to make you feel for it. 

Otherwise, the movie has a good romantic story going on with a few good scenes and dialogues coming at regular intervals. Both Emraan & Soha have given good performances as required by an intense love story. They emote and relate well on screen. But Emraan now has to move on to some completely different roles in his career. He looks like doing the different & improvised versions of his own lover boy characters from his previous movies. Soha on the other hand gives a mature performance as a true lover caught between the choice of her career and love. Mantra, as Emraan’s friend makes a good impact throughout and Sachin Khedekar is hardly there for only one scene.

Hence, it all comes down to the wrong promotion of the movie, where it doesn’t deliver what it promised. Also, the writing falters at many places which is clearly visible to the least interested viewer too. For instance, a person coming to check your Electronic Meter abroad in a pure Indian style, people moving out of a drowning bus leaving a small child alone, the child’s mother is also shown out of the bus crying for help. The script also majorly fails to use the flood sequences resulting into the re-union of the lovers. After one hour, anyone can guess that the story will now end in the floods where Emraan would save Soha and they will both fall in love again. And that’s where Kunal fails to make an impact this time. There is no surprise climax in “Tum Mile” which was incidentally one of the major attractions of his “Jannat”.

Musically, the soundtrack again has some good songs from the ever consistent Pritam. Though not as compelling and rich in lyrics, as his other recent hits, but still they sound good while watching the movie. However as usual, not all songs were needed in the script, which also needed crispier editing. Cinematography, Graphics and Art direction is fine, but nothing path breaking. In fact it is nowhere close to the other epic disaster movie “2012” which also releases this Friday. So, if you want to see a real disaster movie with breathtaking sequences and magical graphics on the screen then your choice should be clear after reading this.

Rating : 2 / 5 (Blame it on the misguiding promotional campaign)

(from bobby sing at www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Madhur Bhandarkar is one of those rare talented directors who has mastered the art of making movies out of the newspapers. Continuing his series of films based on real life instances, he strikes again with a dark, uninviting and somehow upsetting movie on an unconventional subject of Jail and the life of its inmates.

Before going into further details, one thing you have to keep in mind before watching “Jail” is that it’s not the usual witty and gossipy kind of subject chosen by Madhur this time. As suggested by the title itself, the theme is more cruel, dark and depressing which is also in complete contrast to Madhur’s previous famous films. It is even more harsh than his “Traffic Signal” having no room for any comic, humor or sex references. So if you have opted for the movie looking for some great entertaining stuff then you are definitely sitting in the wrong theater. 

But at the same time “Jail” is also not at par with Bhandarkar’s earlier highly appreciated works. For the first time he has opted for a completely predictable and seen before kind of script which has not got any shock treatment for which Madhur is more famous for. The story is anybody’s guess where a young boy is wrongly framed under a drug case and has to spend a few painful years in Jail for a crime which he had never committed. Now the problem here is that the miserable ambience of Jail and the life in it has been already shown in many movies before. The grouping system in the convicts, usual fights between the inmates, the use of money for your own convenience and the underworld operating from the jail, everything has been there on the screen umpteen times before Madhur’s elaborate movie on the subject. So there is nothing new in store for the viewer, which usually is the first expectation from a Madhur Bhandarkar project. And that’s where “Jail” fails to deliver to a great extent.

However, the director’s excellence is still evident in a few well conceived sequences related with some important characters in the script. Especially the sub-plots of Manoj Bajpayi (Nawab) & Rahul Singh (Ghani Bhai) are brilliantly handled by Madhur in his famous trade mark style (But there was no justification given for Nawab killing his own kid brother without any reason). He even explains the relationship between Monsoons and Jails in a very impressive manner. Besides this the narration showcases the questionable process of law and the greedy lawyers operating freely in this corrupt ongoing system. In addition to the above, Madhur also incorporates the real life inspiration angle in the movie taking references from the famous BMW Hit & Run case and Cricket bookies now found in every big and small cities.

Apart from his much applauded direction, the other department in which Madhur has got a great understanding or instinct is the Casting. He is simply perfect in his choice of actors for a particular role. For instance Neil Nitin Mukesh as the main protagonist, Manoj Bajpai as Nawab, Rahul Singh as Ghani, Arya Babbar as the influential inmate, Mughda Ghodse as the helpful lover & Atul Kulkarni as the savior lawyer, every one suits to their respective roles so perfectly. Undoubtedly the best act comes from Neil as the innocent helpless boy, followed by Manoj Bajapai giving a worth watching performance as per his reputation. Neil impresses with his superb expressions depicting the solitude and sufferings faced by his lonely character. On the other hand, Manoj speaks more through his effective stares and exceptional body language. The climax is the best part of the film which has got the Bhandarkar power in it but I wish the movie should have been shorter by a few minutes to make it a more engrossing watch.

The script has got no scope for any full length songs. Still there are few numbers added into the story which actually don’t serve any particular purpose. The compositions are not melodious enough to get register and even the Lata Mangeshkar prayer track is not able to move you either emotionally or musically. But the realistic set of prison and cinematography both deserve a prasing mention for their remarkable contribution. 

On the whole, “Jail” is too realistic and gloomy to be liked by everyone. Moreover the repetitive and predictable content of the movie will prove to be its main drawback at the box office. It is thought provoking for sure but not after you have left the theater.

Yet there is one moral lesson I concluded from the movie which I would like to share with you. It gave me the precious insight that…..

 “CRIME is the unwanted and illegitimate child of ANGER and we should always take care of the precautions before it gets conceived”  - bobbysing

Rating : 2.5 / 5

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

One of of my favourite directors Raj Kumar Santoshi, known for his admirable story telling skills returns on the screen with his romantic comedy featuring Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif. There are huge expectations from the three and everyone is looking forward to witness another applaudable comedy on the lines of Santoshi’s highly appreciated “Andaz Apna Apna”. The promos are exciting and the songs are good. Hence, the stage is all set for just another blockbuster of the season from the maker of brilliant movies ranging from “Ghayal” & “Damini” to “Pukar” & “Halla Bol”.

But now after watching the latest project from one of my most admired directors, I remember a phrase which I don’t believe in really, but is often used by the artistic people in the creative field. It is called “CREATIVE BLOCK” which refers to a phase in the life of creative people where they are not able to create as per their own set standards and come up with some shockingly underworked projects which were completely unexpected from a person of their status. “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” exactly falls in that category. Starting with a deliberately created comedy sequence, the movie clearly gives you an idea that it is not going to be what was being expected. And as the clock moves on you realise that this time Santoshi has delivered the weakest movie of his sparkling career.

Surprisingly, the film has got nothing before intermission except the sincere, skillful performance of Ranbir and glamorous looks of Katrina. There is neither any story development in progress nor any well defined characters on the screen as seen in the previous works of the director. Till intermission only the love angle is visible to the viewers and one keeps on wondering that where the hell is movie heading towards. Beside this, when the real plot unfolds, it has no surprise elements as you already have guessed it without any serious efforts.

Post interval, with the introduction of some new characters, the movie even slides down further due to its disastrously weak writing. In fact there are only few hilarious scenes having the exclusive Santoshi touch towards the climax of the movie. But they are very few in quantity, compared to the movie’s enormous promotional campaign emphasizing on comedy. The final sequence in the Don’s den is also similar to the one seen in “Andaz Apna Apna” but it greatly lacks in content.

The movie has only one performer throughout and he is Ranbir Kapoor at his best. Giving excellent notable performance, he simply shows that he knows his job very well. Katrina on the other hand has got nothing great written for her in the script. So she remains as a pretty face in the movie who he capable of giving much better. The rest of the entire cast fails to make any kind of impact on the viewer which is not a routine kind of feature in a Raj Kumar Santoshi film.

Moreover, Santoshi makes many strange and bizarre kind of moves in his current offering which raises enough doubts on his real involvement in the project. For instance, the confusion over the city in which the story is staged, the short cameo of Salman Khan in the first half, the un-necessary stammering act of both Ranbir & Katrina, the broken English dialogue scene of Ranbir and the surprising entry of a character resembling JESUS towards the end. Actually speaking, all these scenes doesn’t seem to be directed by the Santoshi we know from so many years. He may have not tasted success in many of his previous projects, but there has never been a BAD Santoshi film as APKGK.

Musically, the movie does have few good numbers from Pritam which may go un-noticed due to the under-performance of the film. Cinematography serves the purpose well but it’s sad to see that we still have to move on to the hill stations and snow-mountains to film a romantic song featuring the lead. But actually, the main culprit here remains the writing department which takes everything back to the mediocre levels.  

In the end, let’s take this movie as a result of an unproductive phase in the career of an immensely talented director. And let’s pray that he gives us a much better and polished product next time.

Rating : 1.5 / 5

Last year we had a heavy weight fantasy debacle from the banner of Eros Entertainment called “Drona”. And like a child committing the same mistake repeatedly, this year we have a similar kind of forgettable fantasy titled “Aladin”, once again from the same prestigious banner of Eros. Wasn’t there even one thinking mind in the team who could see that they were repeating the same horrendous blunder again leading to a big loss, both on financial and goodwill grounds? Wasn’t there any creative person at all, who could point out that “Aladin” was also having the same distasteful ingredients, which were earlier universally rejected in “Drona” by the viewers in the first few days of its release? 

Anyway, the mistake has been committed and the loss has to be faced by everyone involved in the making of this horrifying experience. Playing with the loving memories of a childhood story which is still fresh in our mature minds, the movie shamelessly lies in the lowest zone of creativity. Hanging in the mid, it is neither an enjoyable fare for the kids, nor a refreshing graphical ride for the youngsters. In other words it seems to be the result of the wandering mind of a director who is simply lost in his own artistic world and damn cares of the entertainment quotient of his final product.

To start with, in my opinion there are two most important and exciting sequences in an “Aladin” movie, which have to be dealt with extra care and creativity. First being the entry and introduction sequence of the Jinn. And second, the content of the three wishes granted to Aladin by the Jinn. Originally the whole movie should revolve around these three granted wishes and their surprising aftereffects. But shockingly neither of the above two sequences have been given the much required importance by the director Sujoy Ghosh. The Jinn simply appears from the cloudy smoke in few seconds and then just starts singing a song along with Aladin and a group of dancers, which is arguably the weirdest conceived sequence of the movie. Besides this, the three wishes are just wasted by Aladin, without any excitement build up or entertainment factor for the viewers.

Moreover the kids keep on waiting for something great to unfold on the screen, each time Aladin is going to say a wish, but nothing happens and post interval the movie moves on to a totally different tale of a Ring Master who is also in search of the magic lamp. Can’t say from where he came into the story all of a sudden as we have not read about any such character in the Aladin story. May be the director wanted to add some spice and thrill into the story with some additional villain characters. But sadly, his move of adding a baddie Ring Master, doesn’t work at all. On the contrary, the bonus track deviates the story from its original theme and takes away the world famous charm of this fantasy story.

In the performance department, except Ritesh Deshmukh, almost everyone goes over the top, acting with hyper reactions and high energy. It seems they acted that way according to the brief given by the director. Yet in bold terms, both Amitabh Bachchan & Sanjay Dutt should include this movie as one of the most regretful projects of their career. Debutant Jacqueline Fernandez is just there for adding some glamour value and she delivers what was being expected from her. But I was unable to figure out why three talented veterans Ratna Pathak Shah, Victor Bannerjee and Mita Vashisht were there in the movie playing completely unimportant roles which didn’t suit them at all. Only Ritesh Deshmukh looked like his character of Aladin on the screen and he is the only one who gives an impressive, controlled and enjoyable performance in the movie.

Musically, it’s another mediocre score from Vishal-Shekhar with no Hit Track as such. Moreover, most of the songs in the movie are deliberately added into the proceedings and could have been easily left out at the editing table itself. In fact it’s only the Cinematography and few graphic sequences in the movie which are able to impress the viewer to some extent. Otherwise it’s a complete disaster from the production team, who didn’t learn any lesson from their own dud “Drona”.

It was indeed sad to see all the valuable resources and hard work going down the drain once again in a useless effort of making an epic fantasy Indian movie. And only the captain of the ship, Sujoy Ghosh, is the one to blame for this silly fiasco. In a nutshell, it’s high time that the production houses should rethink upon their working strategies. In clear words, they have to keep full control over their ongoing projects and their over-creative directors to save the hard earned money of both the makers and the spectators. Cause we really don’t want any other “Drona” or “Aladin” in the future.

Rating : 1 / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Vipul Shah once again returns with his uniform Punjabi flavour & the India-London theme. Taking a step ahead of his “Namaste London”, this time he impressively comes up with a good take on pop singers and the back stage drama in their over famous lives. But in an otherwise well directed, intense and emotional drama, he is sadly not accompanied by an equally enjoyable musical score (as in Namaste London), which was much needed by the subject. So minus the songs and uninspiring music, here we have a well directed movie with some entertaining & enlightening moments and a worth watching climax (again subtracting the last song).

With a story about changing relationships between two childhood friends, “London Dreams” starts with a notable opening dialogue from Ajay Devgan and then moves into the flashback of the same overused fields of Punjab. After a few introductory scenes, a song and 20 minutes into the movie, enters Salman Khan, who simply sets the screen on fire with his superb effortless acting and hilarious comic timing. From here on the film takes off in actual terms giving way to a brilliant in-flight sequence where Salman interacts with the passengers, an airhostess and the security men in his own impeccable style. And then the first half ends with a well conceived on-stage sequence, which successfully excites you enough to see the further developments on the screen.

Post interval the narration moves into more serious matters, showcasing the cut-throat competition between artists, the feeling of jealousy among themselves and the evil games they play to taste success in their professional lives. The emotional conflict between Ajay and Salman further leads to a completely unexpected and splendidly conceived climax which gives new meaning to the spirit of friendship between two artists and childhood friends. In fact the climax sequence of Salman and Ajay at the Railway Station rightly deserves to be applauded for its superb writing and enlightening execution. Salman straight away wins the heart of every single viewer in the theater, coming up with a completely unimaginable solution to the problem existing between the two friends. But a whole song after their re-union was not creative or intelligent from any angle and the movie should have ended right at the Railway Station.

Performance wise Salman comes at the top with a great act, which includes comedy, emotion, tragedy and even trauma of a drug addict. Ajay Devgan gives another intense and explosive performance different from his current famous comedy movies. He looks dashing in his rough performer getup, but lacked the youthfulness and body flexibility of a rock artist. In other words, he seems to be quite stiff in his stage acts and moreover his self torture scenes were also not needed at all. They give you the feeling of Déjà vu since these kind of sequences were more seen in the movies of 70s & 80s, like the one in Amitabh’s “Mahaan”. Asin is breath-taking gorgeous and looks much better than “Ghajini”. Her short Sita-Gita act was enjoyable only because she looked equally beautiful in both kind of dresses. Though she didn’t have much to do in the project but she surely has got immense talent in her to be explored. Om Puri is cool and calm in his few scenes and notable dialogues but Ranvijay Singh gives an ok performance in his debut movie. He looked more confident in his “Rodies” act on the small screen. Aditya Roy Kapur, as Ranvijay’s brother is impressive & Brinda Parekh repeats her act of “Corporate”.

It can be said that director Vipul Shah is back with a commendable effort talking about the ugly side of human characters who happen to be stage artists in the current script. But the theme is equally relevant in any business form in this cunning monetary world. Vipul realistically directs few praiseworthy sequences in the movie like the one where Salman transforms two lines of a song in different kind of compositions having different tastes and the worth watching emotional climax scene at the railway station. However, along with these well directed ones, he also delivers a questionable sequence, when all the four members of the band except Ajay freely move out of the Wembley Stadium’s green rooms to the lonely, dark backyards, breaking all the security circles, on the very night of their much awaited performance.

Unfortunately, Vipul majorly faulted on his choice of compositions for a project which entirely talks about a musical band and its members. For such a script based on music itself, the songs and score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is too feeble to get register. In fact the most important song of the movie, which the band plays at their night in the Wembley Stadium is completely uninspiring and boring. On the other hand the cinematography captures the essence of the subject superbly. The stage sequences and the Wembley have been shot real well along with some great computer graphics.

Summing up, I would like to say the “London Dreams” just missed out to become a masterpiece flick based on a good subject. It is Salman’s movie all the way, who will appeal to everyone from a city professional to a village farmer. Besides him, the movie and its theme will also appeal to wanna be artists from the younger generation. But it cannot be called a finely polished product as it has many unwanted songs and scenes which could have been easily edited out. And I wish it had some good melodious songs which would have taken the brilliant performances in the movie to another level.    

Ratings : 3 / 5

(by Bobby Sing at www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

The punch line of the review says it all as “Fruit & Nut” was one of the worst movie I have ever seen till date. After requesting the theater manager to run the movie for only two persons alone, the experience of watching this silly dud, later made me regret the request I had made for its special screening. The film simply offers nothing to write about any department of its making ranging from its script, music, acting and direction.

Supposed to be a comedy, the movie starts off in a normal way introducing Cyrus Broacha as a simple, funny, fat boy who is looking for some good job, money and romance in his life. But right after his first scene, the movie falls into a circle of sheer absurdity with strange happenings, illogical scenes and extremely loud characters on the screen. Just imagine a beautiful girl getting kidnapped from a toilet through a commode seat. Really, it was quite brave on behalf of the writer and the director to think and even shoot such a sequence in their full fledged movie. May be they were trying to be over inventive, inspired by some weird world cinema movies. But here the end result was just equal to a badly cooked dish with no taste, flavor or fragrance of any sort. In fact the dish called “Fruit & Nut” doesn’t even deserve to be tasted with the smallest child spoon.

Looking upon the star cast of the film, it seemed to be an interesting project featuring many famous actors known for their mastery in the art. But after watching them portraying their assigned roles in the movie, I became stunned and kept thinking about the thought process of the director who successfully completed this intolerable film with so many talented people around. Apart from Cyrus, there is Mahesh Manjrekar, playing an officer who keeps trying to speak English words and phrases. Boman Irani an eccentric or mad old man, who is on a mission to save Mumbai from the Builders nexus. Diya Mirza, a strange Raw agent who gets kidnapped in the most bizarre manner and Rajat Kapoor, who plays a silly professor and scientist making bombs for the bad men. The most ridiculous of them all is Rajat Kapoor, who gives the most forgetful performance of his otherwise shining career. Everyone else is also just there to honor their professional commitment to the project and that’s it.

Director, Kunal Vijaykar simply missed the golden opportunity he had got, as he failed to use the comic talent of any of the actors made available to him for his project. The movie starts and ends with the same weird and uncanny sequences which become unbearable towards its even more painful climax (where they all start playing Antakshri). And in the end, you just want to rush out of the hall at once as the credits start rolling. Truly speaking, the producers should have done some charity instead of making this insane movie.

Rating : Half A Star / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

It’s the tenth month of the year 2009 and we still haven’t got any worth watching comedy to remember. But the good news is that the dearth of quality fun capers has finally come to an end with “All The Best”, a well made potent fun movie, packed with highly enjoyable hilarious moments for the needy viewers. Interestingly, though Rohit Shetty’s comedy may be less exciting in its star presence as compared to the other biggies released on the same Friday, but in reality it seems to be the best of the lot presented before us in this festive mood.

Moving around the same lines of “Golmaal” (2006) and Inspired by the play “Right Bed Wrong Husband”, the story has the same old elements of mistaken identities, which in turn gives rise to some amusing funny moments to enjoy. The story mainly revolves around the character of Sanjay Dutt, who is a big business tycoon just visiting his younger brother, Fardeen Khan for a few hours. Mistaking Ajay Devgan’s girl (Bipasha) as Fardeen’s wife, the confusions start cropping up which even get worse when Sanjays’s few hours stay gets converted into days due to the flight cancellation.

Though, the movie starts with the same routine stuff of introducing the characters and their love connections along with the two unwanted songs right in the beginning. But after the first 15 minutes it straight away comes back to the job of making you laugh and also manages to complete its job quite successfully. The hilarious interaction between various characters entangled in the identity trap, generates enough laughter to give you a good time in the theater.

With the entertaining comic timing between Sanjay Dutt & Ajay Devgan, the film picks up fast and gets good support from the side tracks of Johny Lever & Sanjay Mishra. In fact Johny Lever returns with his impeccable mannerisms posing as a Don who can’t speak. He mimics Prem Nath’s act of Karz in a very engaging manner and just excels in the climax when he gets his voice back accidentally. Sanjay Mishra as the rich man from the slums is also at his best, especially in his interaction scenes with Sanjay Dutt. Along with the superb performances of Ajay & Sanjay, Fardeen Khan as usual, just provides the required support to both. Bipasha also tries well to match up the comedy acts of others and looks after the glamour quotient of the movie too. But Mughda Godse is hardly there to prove herself.

Pritam’s not so great musical score sounds fine while watching the movie, but for a change, it doesn’t compel you to buy the Soundtrack CD after the screening. Moreover a few songs could have been easily edited out to make it a crispier watch. Cinematography is perfect as required by a comedy flick, but the dialogue writing excels with some superb one liners and funny jokes. 

All the performers get brilliant support from their writers, especially in the scenes where Sanjay Dutt enters the house for the first time and in the climax, when all the characters are together on the screen. As a surprise, a highly emotional sequence also impresses you in this comedy when Bipasha is declared pregnant by the doctor. Collectively, all the three, Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt and Johny Lever are in their full form after a long time, getting adequate support from the rest of the cast.

In short, the multiple character entangle once again proves lucky for the director Rohit Shetty and he surely comes up with the first quality comedy of 2009. Go for it to have a good festive weekend with the family.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com )

At times after watching a movie you just have one thought in the mind that why on earth this movie was made in the first place. What was the creative team thinking while working on this project and how did they come up with an idea of making a complete movie on such a thin, rotten and completely uninteresting plot. Main Aurr Mrs Khanna is the latest example of such a movie which fails to impress miserably from its first scene itself and falls flat.

The story is about a husband and wife, who are parting for some time to gain more financial stability in the future. The wife has to stay alone for the same and within that time period she establishes new friendly relationship with people who help her in finding a new job. On his return the husband starts the same old games of suspicion and then after certain usual clarifications it all ends on a happy note. 

In the new age period of 2009, it’s really strange and courageous of the film-makers to even think of conceiving a film on this subject. May be the narration was quite different from the final product and that may also be the reason why there was not a huge promotional campaign planned for this Salman Khan starrer after the success of his “Wanted”. It seems that the makers already knew that they have a loser in their kitty.

The film starts on a confusing note, with no proper explanations about its key characters, their origin or their work. The viewer keeps guessing how Salman has failed in the business and how he later suddenly succeeds and returns as a rich man just like that. Till intermission the movie keeps moving on its own as if it is not even concerned about the viewer’s interest. And on the top, post interval you are straight away given a song to watch which comes from simply no-where.

To build up the plot, Sohail Khan unrealistically tries to break the loving couple of Salman & Kareena with his silly and unconvincing efforts. He deliberately tries to become the other person in Kareena’s life, even when she has never given him any hint in that direction. And that was completely incompetent stuff from the writing department after the intermission. Moreover introduction of a new girl (Deepika Padukone) in the end, who becomes Sohail’s fresh love interest was also an old surprise trick seen several times before in many similar lover stories.

In the acting department, Kareena tries hard to keep the viewer’s interest alive but doesn’t get the support of her writers. Salman looks a bit tired and too casual in his husband act. Sohail Khan simply repeats himself as usual. Mahek Chahal, Yash Tonk & Nauheed Cyrusi have got nothing much to do in their short roles. Dino Morea is just there for a few minutes. But Bappi Lahiri, who has a full fledged role in the movie is cool and nice to see with all his gold chains around the neck as his trademark.

Sajid Wajid’s music has got something to enjoy as a soundtrack alone. However their few melodious songs could have been used in a more deserving way in some other project. Cinematography is fine capturing the foreign locales, but writing is the weakest department in the movie, coming up with bizarre dialogues such as, “I have bought a star from NASA as a Gift for you.” Now what was that supposed to mean? 

On the whole, I strongly believe that with such huge stars supporting his movie, director Prem Soni should have thought of another new & fresh subject altogether for his first movie. In real terms, the only entertaining five minutes in the movie are with Priety Zinta dancing with the entire cast in a peppy item song having the right punch. But that alone will not be able to bring huge crowds in to the theaters in this festive season.

Touted as the most costly venture of Hindi Film Industry, “Blue” releases on this Diwali weekend to make the most of the Festival season. With tremendous hype in the air, fresh visuals on the screen and never before underwater action for the viewers, the movie had all the ingredients of becoming a blockbuster before its release. But now after going through the watery experience of 2 hours in the theater, I can only think about the huge amount of money spent on such a weak and baseless project.

It really doesn’t feel nice to write negative reviews about a project on which a lot is on the stake in monetary terms. But what can be done, if the movie itself doesn’t provide you anything positive or worth praising to rave about. Though, it starts off quite well with a brilliantly shot sequence where Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt drive out a Shark from their underwater net. But after that, the movie goes on sliding on a never ending downwards slope sinking towards an unknown destination.

Revolving around a conspiracy to reach a hidden underwater treasure, “Blue” has a completely uninteresting first half, with nothing appealing for the viewer related to its main theme. In fact if you simply skip it off and start watching the movie after its intermission, then you miss nothing but only a few chase sequences and two hot babes. Apart from this, the main plot of the movie actually unfolds after the interval, when the three men are set to go for the treasure hunt. So, it all comes down to the last 30 minutes of the flick, where you desperately start waiting for something very exciting to happen related to the hidden wealth and bloody sharks.

But unfortunately or rather very irresponsibly nothing happens even in the concluding moments of the movie and its climax simply leaves you confused and annoyed. There is no excitement felt as the treasure is found, there are no bloody games played with the sharks as shouted in the promotional campaign and there is not a single thrilling moment in this so called never before underwater thriller. 

Yes, there are breathtaking undersea shots worth watching and there are well conceived high quality actions sequences too, but……

Where is the content to win over the viewers? 
Where is the famous charming spell of Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt?
Where are the Sharks, heavily promoted in the T.V. campaigns?
Where is excitement which should be there in treasure hunt movie?

Besides this, the Kylie Minogue song is clearly added deliberately and all the chase sequences featuring Zayeed Khan before and after the intermission are only there to add more glamour and gloss to the project. In addition to this, the two ladies are only there in the movie as there can never be a Hindi Film without any hot heroines to set the screen on fire.

Talking about its performances, there is neither the actual Sanjay Dutt in the movie nor the real Akshay Kumar. In other words you can only find some glimpses of their famous charisma on the screen in few particular scenes here & there. And the most annoying dialogues are where Akshay addresses Sanjay Dutt as “Seth Ji”. I really couldn’t find anything interesting or entertaining in this unique way of calling him “Seth Ji”. May be the writers found it fresh & new, but this was earlier used by Mallika Sherawat in one of her movies too. On the other hand, Zayed Khan, surprisingly shines in his side role and Lara Dutta simply sizzles in her revealing outfits. Lara is undoubtedly looking more glamorous and different than any of her earlier releases. Both Katrina Kaif (in special appearance) and Rahul Dev have done justice to their short and usual roles.

Musically, A. R. Rahman comes out with a few melodious numbers in the soundtrack, out of which “Chiggy Wiggy” has been already made famous by an extensive promotional strategy. Otherwise I think with Kylie Minogue being there for him, Rahman could have belted out something more exciting & sensational for her. Moreover, it was sad to see the best song of the movie, “Fiqrana” being played as a music video along with the end credits.

In short the best part of the movie is its Cinematography and that’s it. The film simply fails to impress in any other department completely and only one man gets all the blame and he is the debutant director Anthony D’Souza. With such enormous amount of resources available at his disposal he should have given more stress on the story, script and content of the movie to ensure its box office success. But ignoring these essential elements of cinema, he focuses more on the look and feel of the project, which has never been the Box-Office success mantra ever. He surely has got the talent to deliver and may come up with a winner next time, but with “Blue” he can only expect the least.

Rating : 1.5 / 5 (The extra half star only for its underwater well shot scenes)

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Sanjay Gupta has been associated with a big list of inspired films in the past and his “Acid Factory” too follows the same trend fearlessly. Directed by Suparn Verma the film heavily borrows most of its content from the English thriller “Unknown” released in 2006. With more legal remakes in the scene I hope the makers have acquired the rights of this adaptation, since it has scene to scene to similarities with the original.

The movie as a whole is an ok thriller for the Indian viewers who may not have seen masterpieces such as “Saw” series” & “Cube”. But for an avid movie lover who is well familiar with this intense, psychological, brain twister thriller genre of the west, “Acid Factory” is just a rehash version of the Original, accompanied by some un-required stunts and usual Indian elements. In fact the deliberately added flavors to suit the Indian audiences take away the essence of an otherwise well directed but inspired attempt from White Feather Films.

It starts in an abandoned factory, where five men wake up from an unconscious state with a zero memory about their names and origin. Suspecting each other for their current state, they have a mutual conflict, trying to know the real truth about themselves and the others. The first half only deals with their small fights along with a few glimpses of their individual past. But it’s the second half which has a better grip, unfolding the real mystery behind the game played by all. The movie builds up slowly raising your expectations for an explosive climax which sadly remains unfulfilled. The concluding moments in the script are not that convincing as they should have been to end up a tense psycho thriller.

Performance wise everyone is just there with nothing exceptional delivered by any particular actor. The most talented among the star-cast is Irfan Khan who is simply wasted in the few scenes he gets. Diya Mirza, who was majorly used for the Net publicity campaign is hardly there in the movie (she enters after the intermission). And it was nice to see “Neha” back on screen after a long time. Cinematography is first rate with Sanjay Gupta’s favorite green tone on the screen. But the lavishly shot actions scenes and the few songs were completely out of the place and were not needed at all.

In few words, “Acid Factory” is a borrowed movie from the director Suparn Verma. It can be given a chance by those who haven’t seen the original western flicks and love this intense, brain twister genre of movies where the hidden truth gets revealed in the climax.

Frankly speaking, it’s really tough to write about a movie which straight away starts with a completely inspired scene where even the location, ambience and characters are purely an imitation of the original. It simply takes away the joy of watching a movie. In other words it’s like watching a painting in a gallery, signed by an artist who hasn’t painted it at all.

Rating : 2 / 5 (If it’s an official remake of the Original) and

0 / 5 (If it’s an unauthorized imitation)

(from Bobby Singh at www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

In the past decades David Dhawan has successfully given us highly enjoyable movies on the subject of extra marital affairs such as “Biwi No.1”, “Gharwali Baharwali” and “Sajan Chale Sasural”. But his current “Do Knot Disturb”, lacks the famous David-Govinda punch and fails to provide the expected entertainment factor to the viewers. Though the movie does manage to make you laugh in some particular scenes but the number of those hilarious moments is too small for a David-Govinda comic venture.

The start is pretty fast and well executed by David where he at once reveals the main plot of the drama about Govinda having an affair with an item girl Dolly, played by Lara Dutta. Sushmita Sen, as Govinda’s wife, suspects her husband and uses her old time friend, Ranvir Shorey to be a detective investigating Govinda’s movements. It all starts with a photograph in which Govinda can be seen standing along Lara. Incidentally, Ritesh Deshmukh also gets clicked in that photograph as he was passing by. To safeguard his position Govinda bribes Ritesh Deshmukh to play the role of Lara’s dummy boy friend and make fool of the detective hired by Sushmita Sen. To overcrowd the screen, there is another added character of Lara’s old boyfriend, played by Sohail Khan in his same old comic style seen many times before.

The two line plot is known to the viewer in the first 20 minutes itself and then it’s all about the characters chasing each other and trying hard to make you laugh with their so called hilarious acts and one liners. At times, a good laughter is there, but in major part of the movie, you just keep on waiting to see the famous David-Govinda magic, once again on the screen. Sadly in “Do Knot Disturb” their chemistry does not work because of very few genuine & well written comic scenes in the script. There is too much stress given on the dialogue delivery and tone of speech of the characters, which fails to generate any positive impact. Even Govinda’s highly promoted act of “Dolly, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly” has also been used in a very unimpressive manner, which doesn’t stay in the viewers mind.

In the second half, David also uses the cult “Dead Body Act” from “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron”, which again falls flat along with other half baked jokes played for the viewers. The silly chase sequence between various characters towards the end simply loses its track and results in quite a messy climax unexpected from a David Dhawan movie. On top of it, the last scene of the movie even makes you recheck the team behind this below average attempt accompanied by such a talented star-cast and a big production house.

In the acting department, Govinda as usual tries his best to make you laugh, but its Ritesh Deshmukh who scores the maximum, doing a highly competent act with the veteran. However, there are no doubts that there is nobody in the Industry who could have handled the “Dolly Dolly” act with such a conviction and grace, other than Govinda himself. Sushmita Sen looks pretty but has also put on lots of weight which shows on her face.  Lara Dutta on the other hand looks hot and refreshing. In fact the two movies in which she has looked hotter than ever are “Partner” and “Do Knot Disturb” (may be in “Blue” too). Manoj Pahwa and Rajpal Yadav excel in their supporting comic characters. But Ranvir Shorey and Sohail Khan are completely wasted. Anybody could have done their roles, especially the part of “Ranvir Shorey”, which was not written according to the immense comic timing & talent he has got. What was the use of his double role scene in the climax still remains a mystery. And I hardly understand why Rituparna Sengupta accepted such a tiny and unimportant role in the movie.

Musically it is a winner with 3 highly entertaining songs where the best one is, “Meri Bebo”. Nadeem Shravan once again prove themselves as they come up with a very interesting number “Zulfein Khol Khaal Ke” which is a rehashed version of “Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar”. The songs as well as the movie, is shot lavishly in beautiful locations including the posh interiors of a luxurious hotel.

To be precise, in “Do Knot Disturb” both David Dhawan and Govinda are not in their full forms, desperately trying hard to make you laugh and have a good time. But the end result is far below than what was being expected from the duo.

(The film is also an inspired version of a French movie, "La Doublure" or "The Valet" released in 2006.) 

Rating : 1.5 / 5

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

To be straight, if you are expecting yet another, youthful movie on the lines of “Dil Chahta Hai” or “Rang De Basanti” then you may feel a bit low after watching “Wake Up Sid”. Because the movie has nothing refreshing to show about the vibrant college life or energetic celebrating days of the youth. In fact, it hasn’t got the colorful content as projected by its interesting promotional campaign and movie stills.

The movie starts off in a light mood, where Ranbir is shown lazily preparing for his college exams. Later he meets Konkana in a late night party, who has just arrived in Mumbai and becomes her first friend in the city. With more e-mail exchanges and Ranbir helping her decorating her new apartment, a friendly relationship starts building between the two. But all this just keeps happening in a very laid off manner and the viewer desperately waits for something more interesting to unfold on the screen. Till intermission the only scene which rises above the usual stuff is the interview scene between Rahul Khanna & Konkana.

In the second half, as Ranbir leaves his parent’s house, the movie starts endorsing live in relationship with a cool attitude. Along with that, the story has the same old clashes between rich and middle class ways of living with an added rotten plot of two love triangles incorporated lightly into the script. Keeping more emphasis on the main characters, the writers strangely leave out the parents (Anupam Kher & Supriya Pathak) out of the narration and bring them in whenever they feel like. According to the script the parents don’t even care to know the whereabouts of their only son, after leaving his house in anger.  

However, the movie has its moments with two worth watching scenes representing the current generation. One, when both Ranbir and his friend laugh at a break up story and two, when Konkana and Ranbir play around with water bottles. With more such scenes, the movie could have been the latest talk of the town among the younger generation. Moreover, a completely predicable climax also leaves the viewer less entertained in the end. The climax required a great amount of trimming since the movie drags a lot towards its concluding moments. 

Performance wise it’s a Konkana movie entirely where she leads from the front with her simple yet gorgeous looks. Her sensuous and soft dialogue delivery wins over the viewer in the first scene itself. Konkana handles Ranbir just like a mature understanding lady, in love with a young innocent boy. Ranbir tries very hard to act real but it’s the fault of the misleading promos that his character looks like lacking the refreshing & interesting look shown in the promotional campaign of the movie. Otherwise he has done a fine job in the role of a confused youngster. Rahul Khanna, Anupam Kher and Kashmira Shah play their small roles impactfully, but Supriya Pathak fails to generate any laughters with her faulty English.

Musically, the soundtrack has nothing capable of making you go dancing or singing. An unexpected let down from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Amit Trivedi. On the other hand, Cinematography captures Mumbai in a cool manner. In short, director Ayan Mukerjee delivers a simple project based on a routine storyline, which moves at a slow pace and has nothing extraordinary or exceptional as expected.

On second thoughts I also have some questions in mind regarding the projects which you may find interesting too.

Why there always have to be a “Hamming Mother Character” in Karan Johar Productions movie, which is supposed to provide a comic relief to the viewers. (Like Kiron Kher in “Dostana” & Supriya Pathak in “Wake Up Sid”)

Why we always have to make movie on love stories alone?  

The movie “Wake Up Sid” has a very interesting plot of knowing your hidden talents, where Ranbir finds out that he has got a great unexplored talent of photography. His raw skills also fetch him a job in a leading magazine. Konkana also has a concealed talent of writing which even gets her own column in the magazine. So why the director didn’t thought of using these subplots as the main subject of the story, which could have been a great move. Why only love angles have to be deliberately used in our movies to win over the viewers. I think the Indian viewers are now ready enough to watch some unexplored subjects and not just the usual dragging love stories.

Coming back to “Wake Up Sid”, it’s strictly a multiplex flick which may be liked by Ranbir fans out there but for others it’s just an average movie vaguely talking about the current generation.

Rating : 2 / 5

(from Bobby sing at www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Before the movie started, I had my doubts on whether Ashutosh will be able to create the same magic with Harman Baweja, as he previously did with Hrithik Roshan in the role of an unimaginable Akbar. With a shaky subject in hand and mediocre songs on air, I was not sure of another polished product from the director with a big stature in the Industry. And all my doubts proved right as “What’s Your Rashee” came out to be just a below average movie with an unbearable long length, not so impressive content and many unwanted ordinary songs.

Based on the novel by Madhu Rye, the story (which is quite predictable) moves around a young NRI boy who is here in India to marry a girl within a week. To make a good choice he decides to meet a girl from each sun sign and then take a decision. Unfortunately, the interesting idea completely fails in its uninspiring screen adaptation. Other than the twelve different girls brilliantly portrayed by Priyanka Chopra, there is no particular scene in the movie to rave about. In fact if you see the movie, ignoring the truth that it has been directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, then you will just take it as a debut project of any budding director and nothing more.

The biggest disappointment in the movie is its extra long length and completely uninspiring music. Ashutosh could have easily edited out most of the songs in the movie as they are not anywhere a part of the progressing storyline. The run of the mill soundtrack stands nowhere, if compared to the scores of Gowariker’s earlier projects. Yes, he had the great A. R. Rahman on his side in all those great movies, but there were good hummable songs in his “Baazi” too which proves his good choice of melodies. Surprisingly in “What’s Your Rashee” out of more than 12 songs, we don’t even have one particular track to stay in our mind except the obvious title number.

Apart from its length and music, the monotonous act of seeing girls again and again becomes quite boring and annoying after a while. There is a very silly explanation given about the similar faces of all 12 girls in the start which puts you off straight away. The completely avoidable and poorly written detective angle in the script fails to make an impact. It also does not reach any conclusion since Ashutosh simply forgets about this added sub-plot towards the end and moves on. There is no proper justification given about how Harman makes his choice in the climax and everything just gets sorted our very easily and quickly.

In few words, it’s a Priyanka Chopra movie all the way, where she acts, dances and emotes in 12 different ways in a fantastic manner. Unarguably, it’s one of the best performances of her career till date. On the other hand, I really feel sad for Harman Baweja, who is a true hard worker, but still hasn’t got the lady luck smiling at him. When it came to Harman’s turn, even the man with a midas touch, lost his golden stroke and failed. All other character artists in the movie are simply performing their allotted roles as a duty towards the director. Cinematography serves the purpose well and visual graphics are nice to see on the screen. Especially the graphical presentation of all the sun signs at the start reminded me, one of the famous James Bond opening credits, known for their brilliant graphics and girls.

A few decades back we had a T.V. Serial called “Mr.Yogi”, where also a young NRI selects few girls to meet before his planned marriage. In each episode he used to meet a new girl from a different family and background. And I still remember, that I enjoyed the T.V. serial many times more than the current “What’s Your Rashee”. In all, a big disappointment from the director whose all last 3 movies, are there in my “Movies To See Before You Die” list.

Rating : 1.5 / 5

It’s good news for the real Bollywood fans, the common man, living out of the metros in small cities, towns and villages. Salman Khan brings back to them their good old action cinema with the same punches and enthusiasm which got lost in the new age glossy kind of movies in the recent years. The angry young man is back on the screen bashing all the bad men real hard. And it was indeed a lot of fun and relief to see a true Bollywood kind of movie after a long time stuffed with our own trademark action, fights, love, dance and songs.

Remake of “Pokiri” already made in Telugu and Tamil, “Wanted” starts off normally with a mention of Mumbai underworld nexus and a newly appointed honest Police Commissioner in the town. Salman Khan makes a routine entry as the filmy action hero working for the underworld dons and known for his killer instincts and attitude. After a slow initial start, the movie starts growing on you gradually and holds a strong grip over the viewer till the intermission. Especially the confronting scene at the basket ball court between Salman and Mahesh Manjrekar sets the mood in and you start enjoying the movie from there on.

The explosive second half is a real treat for the action lovers where Salman beats and kills uncountable men left and right with a great confidence. Here you witness the good old cinema of Bollywood Heroism back on screen where the Macho Man is hitting more than 20 men on the screen among the loud roar of claps and shouts from the audiences. Later we even have a suspense element added towards the climax which though is predictable but still adds more spirit to the highly violent fight sequence in the end. 

Salman shows great attitude in his highly brutal act and also looks very cool in his casual shirts & denims. His emotional scenes with Ayesha Takia are equally convincing and enjoyable. Thinking about his amazing action scenes in the movie, you just cannot imagine anyone else doing more justice to the role other than Salman himself. Here, I would also like to mention, one highly appreciable scene in the movie where Salman Khan strongly criticizes his close friend for eating “Gutka”. That was indeed a very commendable effort from the actor to save many lives from this highly famous killing habit in the youth today.

Ayesha as the leading lady unexpectedly gives a spirited performance in the movie and is not just there for adding glamour. Mahesh Manjrekar, as the corrupt cop, deserves a special mention for his scenes providing the right momentum to the movie. Govind Namdeo suits the role of Police Chief perfectly but Vinod Khanna is completely wasted in an unimportant role. Mahek Chahal is there as the vamp and Manoj Pahwa tries to make you laugh with his not so entertaining getup.

Sajid Wajid come up with a couple of good numbers enjoyable on the screen (with a special appearance of Govinda & Anil Kapoor), otherwise the movie could easily do without so many songs. Action is the main asset of the movie, getting the much needed support from its Cinematographer. Story wise, “Wanted” has nothing new to offer, but after a long time, Indian Common Man gets a pure MASALA Movie to enjoy on the lines of highly successful action movies released a few decades back. I would even like to rate “Wanted” better than “Ghajini” since it does not take help of any additional (memory) gimmicks added deliberately into the script.

Surprisingly, this hardcore action movie comes from the director “Prabhudeva” who is more famous in Hindi Cinema for his amazing dance movements. And quite unpredictably, he delivers a highly entertaining flick for the real common man who simply loves Bollywood movies as one of the most important passions of his life. The critiques may find it over the top and the thinking viewer may find it routine with many flaws in its script, but if you are not among any of these, then just go for this engaging action drama and enjoy your three hours in the cinema with your friends.

Summing up, if you loved watching Amitabh in “Deewar” & Sunny Deol in “Ghayal”, then here is another equally entertaining act by the still young & angry Salman Khan. “Wanted” is undoubtedly among his most hard hitting and enjoyable movies till date with a different Salman altogether as never seen before. So, just go for it now and have a great time with him.

Rating : 3.5 / 5
(With a special mention of Salman’s explosive performance.)

The day I saw the first promo of “Dil Bole Hadippa” few months back, my only words were “Oh God! not again”. Because once more there was a movie based on Punjab and Cricket with a talented coach having tons of attitude, along with a girl trying to deceive in a very ill suited “Sikh Getup” which was not convincing at all from any angle in the frame.

And now after sitting through the whole movie today, I exactly feel the same again and was even more disappointed by the final product. The movie couldn’t change my thoughts even slightly as it has nothing new to offer in any departments technically or creatively. From the first scene itself you are offered silly sequences in the name of cricket where both the bowler and the batsman don’t know anything other than just the ball crossing the boundary. The story is completely predictable from the promos itself where a girl poses as a boy to play in a match against the rival team (which is strangely an unofficial team from Lahore, Pakistan) and you are simply offered all repetitive scenes every minute in the movie without any specific entertainment or novelty.

As an overall review, I would simply like to mention a few (silly) points here about the movie, which will give you a concrete idea of the project and it’s below average content:

1. It starts with a sequence where Rani (who specializes in hitting sixes) is scoring 6 sixes in a row to a bowler who is supposed to be a well known Ranji player (Domestic First Class Cricket Championship in India) and he doesn’t know how to try 6 different bowls in an over. Quite a silly start!

2. In the tense atmosphere prevailing between India & Pakistan from decades, the director shows two local teams playing unofficial cricket every six months in a stadium without any cricketing official in sight. The Indian team is from Amritsar, managed  by Anupam Kher & the Pakistani team is from Lahore lead by Dilip Tahil.

3. These two old time friends come with their respective teams at Wagah Border (Original Location) where there is no security officials, no military men of either sides and no official cricket authority on the location. Moreover, both Anupam & Dilip watch the matches sitting alone on one Sofa in a tent and there is no one else watching the match from the State, Center or Local Government.

4. There is an overuse of deliberate Punjabi language and Devotional Sikh “Mool Mantra” coming many times in the movie. The director uses it purposely to give the movie a more authentic feel but the move falls flat.

5. In a poorly conceived climax match, the Indian players are shown getting out childishly. It seems as if Shahid kept the coaching only for him and Rani alone and the rest were simply left out of the training camps.

6. The director didn’t do his research on the finer details of Cricket and its rules. In the last ball, Rani changes her stance from right to left hand. A player can only do so after seeking the permission of the on-field Umpires and also informing the rival captain, so that he can change the field settings. But here Rani just changes the stance ignoring all rules of the game.

7. In the climax, a very silly argument is given by Rani on the stage, saying that both girls and boys should be allowed to play together in Cricket as a Mixed Team. Was this supposed to be innovative writing?

Performance wise Rani makes a desperate attempt to strike back but sadly focuses on a wrong project. She tries hard and also impresses in her Man-Act, but the badly written and poorly directed movie lets her down. I also couldn’t understand how she approved the awful get up, which was a complete disaster all the way. Shahid does nothing, other than showing his attitude. After “Kaminey”, he disappoints big time. Sherlyn Chopra simply flaunts her fab body. Surprisingly Rakhi got more shouts than Rani in her opening scene and she really has the right dancing moves better than many lead artists in the industry. Anupam Kher, Dilip Tahil and Poonam Dhillon have played their parts perfectly.

Musically, the soundtrack has a huge Punjabi hangover. A few songs are catchy but don’t have the original Punjabi feel, Vocals and arrangement. Cinematography is nothing extraordinary. Background Score is completely based on Dhol and Punjabi sounds but gets repetitive after the initial scenes.

Collectively it’s a light movie based on cricket with too many loopholes and faults in its direction. Anurag Singh chose an absolutely worn-out theme for the movie and also didn’t work on the finer details of the sport. He carelessly tries to fool a “Cricketing Nation” where people eat, drink and live cricket. In fact, the movie reminded me one of the first (childish) movies made on Cricket titled “All-Rounder” and I think that says all about my views on “Dil Bole Hadippa”.

In few words, I wasn’t expecting such a weak movie from the makers of “Chakk De India”.

Rating : 1 / 5 (That too only for the spirited performance of Rani Mukherjee).

The day I saw the first promo of “Dil Bole Hadippa” few months back, my only words were “Oh God! not again”. Because once more there was a movie based on Punjab and Cricket with a talented coach having tons of attitude, along with a girl trying to deceive in a very ill suited “Sikh Getup” which was not convincing at all from any angle in the frame.

And now after sitting through the whole movie today, I exactly feel the same again and was even more disappointed by the final product. The movie couldn’t change my thoughts even slightly as it has nothing new to offer in any departments technically or creatively. From the first scene itself you are offered silly sequences in the name of cricket where both the bowler and the batsman don’t know anything other than just the ball crossing the boundary. The story is completely predictable from the promos itself where a girl poses as a boy to play in a match against the rival team (which is strangely an unofficial team from Lahore, Pakistan) and you are simply offered all repetitive scenes every minute in the movie without any specific entertainment or novelty.

As an overall review, I would simply like to mention a few (silly) points here about the movie, which will give you a concrete idea of the project and it’s below average content:

1. It starts with a sequence where Rani (who specializes in hitting sixes) is scoring 6 sixes in a row to a bowler who is supposed to be a well known Ranji player (Domestic First Class Cricket Championship in India) and he doesn’t know how to try 6 different bowls in an over. Quite a silly start!

2. In the tense atmosphere prevailing between India & Pakistan from decades, the director shows two local teams playing unofficial cricket every six months in a stadium without any cricketing official in sight. The Indian team is from Amritsar, managed  by Anupam Kher & the Pakistani team is from Lahore lead by Dilip Tahil.

3. These two old time friends come with their respective teams at Wagah Border (Original Location) where there is no security officials, no military men of either sides and no official cricket authority on the location. Moreover, both Anupam & Dilip watch the matches sitting alone on one Sofa in a tent and there is no one else watching the match from the State, Center or Local Government.

4. There is an overuse of deliberate Punjabi language and Devotional Sikh “Mool Mantra” coming many times in the movie. The director uses it purposely to give the movie a more authentic feel but the move falls flat.

5. In a poorly conceived climax match, the Indian players are shown getting out childishly. It seems as if Shahid kept the coaching only for him and Rani alone and the rest were simply left out of the training camps.

6. The director didn’t do his research on the finer details of Cricket and its rules. In the last ball, Rani changes her stance from right to left hand. A player can only do so after seeking the permission of the on-field Umpires and also informing the rival captain, so that he can change the field settings. But here Rani just changes the stance ignoring all rules of the game.

7. In the climax, a very silly argument is given by Rani on the stage, saying that both girls and boys should be allowed to play together in Cricket as a Mixed Team. Was this supposed to be innovative writing?

Performance wise Rani makes a desperate attempt to strike back but sadly focuses on a wrong project. She tries hard and also impresses in her Man-Act, but the badly written and poorly directed movie lets her down. I also couldn’t understand how she approved the awful get up, which was a complete disaster all the way. Shahid does nothing, other than showing his attitude. After “Kaminey”, he disappoints big time. Sherlyn Chopra simply flaunts her fab body. Surprisingly Rakhi got more shouts than Rani in her opening scene and she really has the right dancing moves better than many lead artists in the industry. Anupam Kher, Dilip Tahil and Poonam Dhillon have played their parts perfectly.

Musically, the soundtrack has a huge Punjabi hangover. A few songs are catchy but they don’t have the original Punjabi feel, Vocals and arrangement. Cinematography is nothing extraordinary. Background Score is completely based on Dhol and Punjabi sounds but gets repetitive after the initial scenes.

Collectively it’s a light movie based on cricket with too many loopholes and faults in its direction. Anurag Singh chose an absolutely worn-out theme for the movie and also didn’t work on the finer details of the sport. He carelessly tries to fool a “Cricketing Nation” where people eat, drink and live cricket. In fact, the movie reminded me one of the first (childish) movies made on Cricket by Dev Anand titled “All-Rounder” and I think that says all about my views on “Dil Bole Hadippa”.

In few words, I wasn’t expecting such a weak movie from the makers of “Chakk De India”.

Rating : 1 / 5 (That too only for the spirited performance of Rani Mukherjee).

“Aamras” - The title may sound confusing but it actually is the name of a cool summer drink made out of mango pulp, more famous in states of central India. It becomes the title of this girly movie because the four lead girls in the film regularly have this drink in one of the girl’s house every day after their school. The movie revolves around these four close friends who study together in a prestigious school and share their every little secret with each other. Coming from extremely different social & financial backgrounds they help out each other in the times of need and have a good fun time in school.

It’s a pure teenage flick where most of the scenes are just written around the four leading young girls and their various school life experiences. With sequences which may force you to remember your own school days, the movie does manage to hold the viewers interest in certain scenes. But those scenes are very few in number and that’s the reason why the movie cannot be rated even as an above average flick. After half an hour into the movie you already know where the story is heading to and how it’s going to end. And that takes away all the charm in this small budget teenage journey.

Director Rupali Guha sticks to her plot too simply and keeps on moving the story on all predictable lines. It’s an easy guess for anybody watching the movie that the girls are going to have some problems in their relationship, which will all get sorted towards the end and that’s it. Even the Parimal Tripathi angle (from Chupke Chupke) and the deliberately added kissing MMS sequence are also not used convincingly. The writer hasn’t got any shock element to add in the storyline. Moreover, it was really surprising to see that in an all girly movie there was very less or marginal talk about love and boys, which in turn, gave the movie a very one sided, tasteless and monotonous feel. Also there are no peppy youthful numbers to lift up the spirits of the viewers.

The only thing which goes in the favor of “Aamras” is, it’s near to perfect casting. All the four girls, Vega, Ntasha, Maanvi & Aanchal have performed brilliantly as the young school going girls. They look like below 18 in their school dresses and act well as the young fun loving girl gang. Both Zareena Wahab & Reema Lagoo also suit their roles perfectly. But with such a thin one line plot, the subject is clearly not an intelligent choice for a big screen movie. In fact, it was more suitable for a new daily soap T.V Serial.

In all it’s a simple movie, shot in a routine manner with nothing extraordinary to offer. So you can easily give it a miss or wait for its home video release.

Rating : 1 / 5

Samir Karnik’s latest venture “Vaada Raha” walks on the same path of partly good movies as seen in his earlier projects such as “Nanhe Jaisalmer” & “Heroes”. Selecting a fresh emotional subject for a film is as easy as reading a new story book. But transforming the same story into a worth watching movie is quite a different game altogether. This time too, Samir comes with a novel plot inspired by a Russian story based on the relationships between two patients in a hospital. But as experienced before, he again struggles in converting the emotional storyline into an equally transforming movie.

Commencing with a slow start, the main hospital plot gets into the picture after quite a while. Until then, the viewer helplessly keeps trying to guess the real catch of the story, which actually revolves around a well known doctor (Bobby Deol), who accidentally reaches the hospital bed after a deadly road mishap. Completely paralyzed after the accident, he is not able to move any part of the body other than his face and also gets dumped by his fiancée (Kangna Ranaut) due to his current dependent state. But the real plot starts later on, when a small boy (Dwij Yadav), who is also there in the hospital, becomes the new friend of the doctor and motivates him to fight with his own destiny with a newly found courage and inner strength.

The plot had a great potential for an off-beat kind of movie, close to the genre of “Anand” and “Mili”. But in order to make it commercially viable, the director goes on to add un-necessary songs into the narration and also comes up with a highly unethical climax where Bobby again reunites with her selfish fiancée who left him alone at the most inappropriate time of his life, when she was needed the most. Moreover, the main focus of the movie, moving around the relationship between Bobby & Dwij Yadav, also fails to impress the viewer completely. Dwij has a great confidence and that may be the reason why Samir keeps on repeating him in his movies. But in “Vaada Raha” he is made to act more than his age, speaking such mature dialogues, suggesting that he is more intelligent than all the other grown-ups roaming around in the hospital as doctors and nurses. Though he has acted well, but I think a more soft spoken tone in his dialogues could have connected with the audience better.

Bobby Deol, tries his level best and gives a good performance. But he gets many half-heartedly written scenes, where he suddenly starts walking after a severe paralysis attack, can easily facilitate a life saving operation dictating the doctors from T.V. monitors, reaches a quick conclusion on cancer cure after studying only a few books and goes on to marry the same girl who ditched him big time. Kangna Ranaut and her talent is simply wasted in an insignificant role. Mohnish Behl is ok and so are the other character artists playing their small parts. Cinematography is just fine but music has nothing great to offer and has only one song reaching the above average level.

With very few worth mentioning scenes (like the ones featuring the pet dog), “Vaada Raha” falters mainly in its writing department. The child factor and his trauma are not used so impressively into the script. The emotional sequences and the tragedies are unable to touch you deep inside. As a result the movie keeps on floating on the surface and fails to leave a heartwarming effect on the viewer. You can watch it only if you are tired of watching the usual love stories, underworld and murder mysteries.

Rating : 1.5 / 5

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

“Baabarr” releasing without any pre release hype or heavy promotions, comes out to be a marginally decent watch in parts. Looking at the promos of this unknown movie, you find three known names featuring in it as Mithun Chakraborty, Om Puri and Sushant Singh. And refreshingly all three deliver worth watching performances, taking the movie to a much better level than expected.

But annoyingly, “Baabarr” keeps on moving between two ends of quality and mediocrity constantly during its two hours of duration. At one end, it offers few sequences which are immensely impressive and well handled by the director Ashu Trikha, whereas on the other, it also has scenes which simply force you to just go for a break.

The movie is highly violent and brutal showing a lot of bloodshed with numerous murders and shoot outs. Though it has some gripping moments and power packed performances in store, but sadly talks about the same gang war drama seen several times before on the screen. The script has nothing new to offer as it revolves around the rotten plot of a young boy growing in the surroundings of crime and becoming a big gangster in his youth, only to get killed by the police in a fake encounter. But it’s the direction, action and cinematography in the movie which keeps on impressing the viewer at regular intervals of time throughout. Especially the original outdoor locations and the racy chase sequences shot beautifully by the DOP.

The initial 20 minutes of the film, depicting the transformation of a young boy into a big gangster are undoubtedly the best moments of this intense crime drama. As you watch the first murder committed by the young “Baabarr”, you feel like it’s going to be a great explosive watch. However the director fails to maintain the electrifying pace generated by its superb opening, resulting in just an average product later on. In few words, “Baabarr” starts from a higher level and then slides down to the same old path, reducing the overall impact of the movie to a great extent.

The best performance comes once again from the veteran actor, Om Puri, who skillfully delivers a polished act of a corrupt police officer with conviction. Mithun Da shines bright in the role of an encounter specialist SP. Sushant Singh as Baabarr’s rival gangster is superb in his few scenes. The debutant Sohum Shah playing Baabarr, puts all his efforts to do full justice to his role but doesn’t have the killer looks of “Bhiku Matrey” in his eyes. Tinnu Anand, Shakti Kapoor and Mukesh Tiwari excel in their brief parts. Urvashi Sharma also does much better than her previous projects. Musically, out of the two songs incorporated in the script, I think the Qawwali track should have been used more, as it sounded quite catchy and lyrical in its brief version.

Summing up, where director Ashu Trikha had everything in place for his big project, yet I couldn’t understand why he chose such a jaded subject for his movie. He ineffectively tries to cover up the poorly written script with his competent direction, but fails to emerge as a winner because the viewer has already seen everything shown in the movie in far superior products such as “Satya”, “Company” and more. So, I wish him all the luck for his next project. As far as his “Baabarr” is concerned, it has more prospects in the smaller centers and single screen theaters out of the metros.

Rating : 2 / 5 (with an extra mention of its superb starting moments.) 

Vikram Bhatt’s previous thriller movies have been a mixed bag of both quality and mediocre flicks. But this time he only wears the hat of a producer and scriptwriter, whereas the film is directed by the debutant Vishal Pandya. Trying his hand at an intense crime thriller, Vishal comes up with a reasonably okay attempt which sticks to its original theme and subject. But in absence of highly gripping moments in the movie, it may find hard to find a large number of viewers.

The story talks about the relationships and betrayal games being played between three characters living in a house. The owners are a loving couple, fighting hard to go on with their happy married life. In order to meet their growing financial needs they decide to rent a portion of their house to a young part time singer, who in return brings more complications into their half broken marriage. The director slowly shows the ugly side of each central character in the script and also surprises the viewer with some sharp twists and turns in the plot. But still the movie fails to take you in completely and keeps on moving with a simple time-pass feel throughout.

The main reason behind the less absorbing feel of the movie is that it doesn’t have any relief moments in the proceedings which make you feel tense and restless. Moreover, the script doesn’t have too many characters to deal with, which results in a tired, monotonous look for the movie in the end. Nausheen Ali Sardar, playing the sharp lady of the house, gets a good opportunity to prove herself and she readily makes the most of it. Impressing with her brilliant act, she scores above the rest, but should have gone for a little less make-up for her looks. Ashish Chowdhry improves a lot from his previous projects. Akshay Kapoor shows his capabilities after he less impactful “Powder” and Achint Kaur leaves a mark in her few scenes. 

It’s really amusing to see, that even in the current changing scenario, directors are still forced to squeeze in few song and dance sequences in an otherwise bloody crime movie. The music is average, but it wasn’t really required according to the script. The few melodious piano pieces played in the movie could have served the purpose perfectly. Background score supports the theme completely and DOP captures Scotland and its locales on the screen beautifully. But the movie could have been shot anywhere as the location has no role to play in the script and its only there to add more glamour and grandeur to the project.

The first half seems to be inspired from “A Perfect Murder” where also the husband and this wife have a criminal link up with an artist. But later on, the three characters go on backstabbing each other in a more desperate way than expected. In short, if you love watching crime thrillers with straight to the point proceedings and characters ditching each other with a different plan of their own, then you might enjoy “Three”. But if you want to have a good entertaining time as a refreshing dose after your hard day, then it may not be the right choice for your evening. 

In our part of the world, the most successful crime thrillers have been made by Abbas-Mastan, who may have been inspired though, but rightly understand the pulse of our Indian viewers. They exactly know how a crime thriller has to be presented in front of the Indian audiences as a tasty, crispy, flavored dish. But Vishal Pandya’s current attempt missed out on those necessary spicy ingredients, which could have resulted in a more entertaining thriller for the viewers. In all it’s just an okay product, which can be given a try if you really love this particular genre.

Rating : 2 / 5

(By Bobby Singh from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

You may not have seen its posters on the walls or any promos running on the major T.V. channels, but “Chintu Ji” surprisingly manages to get released in a descent way among the other big banner flicks hitting the theaters this Friday. Coming from Bobby Bedi, the man behind movies like, “Bandit Queen”, “Mangal Pandey” & more, it was expected to be something fresh and out of the routine. Inspired from “The Man Who Came To Dinner” (1942), the plot is surely novel and interesting, but the treatment is too simple as compared to the current trends, lacking the essential entertaining comic punches required by the subject.

The story revolves around “Chintu Ji” the real life name of Rishi Kapoor, as he is fondly called by his family and friends in the industry. He plays himself in the movie as the superstar of yesterday now willing to try his luck in Politics. The residents of a small village called “Hadbahedi”, discover that it was their village, where Chintu ji was born and also named “Chintu” by an old lady of the village still alive. So, in view of drawing attention to the backward state of their village, all the residents invite Chintu Ji to visit his birthplace once again. Taking it as a good opportunity for launching his political career, Rishi Kapoor accepts the invitation and visits the village in his chartered plane. And then it’s all about how he manages to live in the tough conditions of the village, striving hard for his favorite liquor and non-veg dishes.

The plot had the capability to win over its viewers, but the execution makes it a little drag after a few initial absorbing moments. Performance wise, the film entirely belongs to Rishi Kapoor and his effortless act where he shows the other side of the famous public figures, not known to their numerous innocent fans. He carries the whole film on his shoulders getting ample support from Priyanshu Chatterjee and Kulraj Randhawa. Priyanshu, undoubtedly stands tall among the most under-rated actors of the new generation, who are sadly not being offered the right kind of projects to prove themselves. And also there was no need for an extra story angle related to his character in the movie. Kulraj Randhawa moves ahead from her punjabi projects and impresses to a great extent.

Music needed to be much better, thinking about the wacky song calling the names of all the world famous directors, included in the movie without any purpose. So this is one major department where the film lacks a lot. Cinematography is competent capturing the earthy locations in a fine way. Director Ranjit Kapoor had a good vision for his project but the end result could not emerge as a clear winner. In my opinion use of more quality comedy sequences related to the Bollywood Film Industry could have helped the movie a lot.

Actually the project belongs to the genre of “Welcome To Sajjanpur” released last year, which also talked about the life of different people living in a small village. But the finesse we witnessed in that Shyam Benegal movie is completely missing in Kaleidoscope’s “Chintu Ji”. Still you can watch it for a pleasant change from the regular stuff being offered to us every new Friday.

Rating : 2 / 5

An idea which may sound interesting in a story sitting with the producers needs to be conceptualized and shot in an equally interesting style. But many times we have seen this going the wrong way, which exactly is the problem with “Aagey Se Right”. With a one line thick story thought and a terrible messy screenplay the movie doesn’t deserve to be called a comedy.

A newly appointed Cop loses his service revolver right in the start and then keeps on moving from one situation to another in search of his lost property. Along with this, there is another angle of a Jihadi terrorist falling in love with a young girl, looking for a break in the show business. The promising idea which may have worked in a 90 min English movie gets completely wasted in the Bollywood style project. The reason being that we are still forced to add more additional sub-plots and unwanted songs into the screenplay which actually spoils a good thought and results in an unpleasant clutter.

Had it been only these two plots moving into each other, the movie could have been an engrossing flick. But the overcrowded characters running with their own parallel storylines didn’t work out at all leading to a complete disaster. The director along with his talented star cast tries desperately hard to make you laugh, but there are actually only few scenes in the movie where you can even smile effortlessly. The screenplay keeps wandering like a lost car on a road moving left and right without any specific directions to go.

With Kay Kay & Shreyas Talpade being there in the cast, the movie was expected to be at least a watchable attempt for once. But surprisingly, even they are unable to perform in their unexciting and loosely scattered scenes written uninterestingly. Kay Kay seems to be miscast and Shreyas fails to create any laughter with his innocent attempts. In fact there is only one person, who proves his comic timing once again and he is Vijay Maurya, the Mumbai underworld link of the terrorists. He is really amusing in his few scenes along with Kay Kay. Among the ladies, Shehnaz Treasurywala is simply there because of her pretty face and I really don’t know what was Mahi Gill doing in this movie after her impressive performances in “Dev-D” & “Gulaal”. It was clearly a wrong choice made in an important phase of her career. Shiv Pandit & Shruti Seth don’t impress, but the veterans Rakesh Bedi and Bharti Achrekar excel in their small parts.

Musically, the movie has nothing to offer great and same can be said about its Cinematography and Background Score. Editing is unimpressive as it leaves many loose ends remaining unexplained. The movie should have been edited more severely removing all the non essential scenes like that of Shreyas mother coming again & again into the narration.

Director Indrajit Nattoji has surely made this movie with good intentions, keeping it clean and tidy for the family audiences. But he couldn’t deliver a highly enjoyable comedy despite of having the support of a big production house. However the biggest positive point I see in these small budget experimental types of movies is that they provide an opportunity to many budding technicians, music directors and lyricists who want to prove themselves in the industry. But in case of “Aagey Se Right”, its posters were far better than the movie, so you can easily give it a miss.

Rating : 1 / 5

(By Bobbysing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Deepak Tijori has earlier been associated with movies inspired from the Western flicks like “Fareb”, “Oops” & “Khamosh”. With “Fox” he continues trying his luck in the thriller genre and once again fails to hit the nail rightly. Bollywood has delivered very few worth mentioning thrillers in the past and “Fox” is clearly not an exception to this fact.

In a crime thriller revolving around a famous criminal lawyer (Arjun Rampal) and a tough investigation police officer (Sunny Deol), the viewer expects to be taken for a tricky ride with new twists and turns coming every few minutes into the movie. But the latest offering from Deepak moves at a snail pace without any unexpected revelations to surprise the viewer. The movie starts off well, where a famous criminal lawyer who is known for saving murderers from the court goes through a heart transformation. However, where the first sequence of the movie looks fresh, interesting and inviting, the remaining part of it disappoints completely.

Without going into the suspense part of the plot, I would only like to state that the major point which goes against this movie, is its poorly written, absurd climax. As you are shown the real person responsible for the entire blame game, you just drop your head down. It’s simply unimaginable to believe the reasons why Arjun Rampal was chosen as a target by the main culprit. So whatever good, the movie had in store in its favor, gets simply ruined by the badly conceived climax and you just don’t want to think about it anymore walking out of the hall.

Going at par with the movie, apart from Arjun alone, everyone else is trying to deliver more than he/she is capable of. Udita Goswami does a repeat act, similar to her previous movies. May be she had some problems with the makers, since she is simply taken out of the script towards the climax. Sagarika Ghatge is just ok, but was this the role she was waiting for after “Chakk De”? Sunny Deol looks like doing a favor to the producers while playing his part. He again comes only a few minutes before the interval doing a routine act close to his “Khel”. Only Arjun Rampal looks well fitted in his role and has performed well (but he surely could have done without using that strange wig on his head).

Monty Sharma's music is only there to fill the space with few below average songs. Camerawork & Background score serves the purpose fine. Director, Deepak Tijori does show an improvement from his previous works but I hope this is not an inspired version of an English movie as his last movie “Khamosh”. He manages to present some well shot sequences in the first half but it’s the climax which makes the movie simply below average. To sum up, I wish the movie had a complete different culmination.

Rating : 1.5 / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Buying the ticket for this unusual kind of attempt, I had two thoughts in my mind. One that it may be a complete entertainer served with a different South Indian humor and two, it may turn out to be a sincerely attempted unsuccessful experiment by its makers. Unfortunately, it fitted well into the second category of my thoughts and was a big disappointment.

Moving around the revenge saga of a South Indian Cowboy called “Quick Gun Murugun”, the movie is full of animated action sequences with bullets being shot in slow motion. The supreme hero never gets hurt seriously, as seen in the cinema of 70s and keeps on fighting with a miraculous touch. He can see the bullet coming towards him clearly, can hold it in his bare fist and can even catch it with his teeth. Senseless shots like these keep on repeating throughout the movie with characters speaking in heavy South Indian accent which also becomes unbearable after a while. Symbolically, there is a fight between the Vegetarian Hero and the Non Vegetarian villain who has plans to introduce his own Non-Veg Dosa. And another angle reveals how “Murugun” has also been to “Swarg” and even struck a deal with “Chitragupt” managing the life-accounts there.

The movie is quite strange and bizarre in its unreal treatment with no storyline heading towards any particular direction. It seems like the director just had the idea of this “South Indian Cowboy Character” and then he simply started shooting sequences of his fight with the villain and the project was ready. It makes you feel like watching a children comic strip running on the screen full of childish action sequences. It is even hard to believe that how the director not only managed to find big producers for this project but also successfully released it in the theaters with a fine promotional campaign. That was indeed a Great Job done there!

There is nothing much to write about the different technical departments of the project as I really found everything done lavishly but without any specific direction. Right from the sincere acting of the cast to the stylishly done graphics, the efforts are barely visible due to the uninteresting and lifeless narration. Surprisingly the movie is just less than 100 minutes of duration which serves as a boon for its viewers. May be they were not able to squeeze in more actions scenes towards its climax as it was already overdone.

In short, I can only describe this movie as purely made out of passion and love towards the character “Quick Gun Murugun”. The idea was pretty good and the project could have been the platform for another cult character of our movies. But sadly it could not materialize perfectly and the end result was just like an avoidable flavorless Dosa.

Rating : 1 / 5

(By Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

Released with the least possible promotional campaign, “Yeh Mera India” showed the glimpses of its powerful content in the promos itself. And as promised it thankfully delivers a quality product with many thoughtful sequences, questioning the social double standards of our society. In other words, it is the most important movie of 2009 since it talks about some burning issues and forces the viewer to think about his life and the actions he might have taken in the similar situations.

It belongs to the same genre of movies which talk about different inter-connected stories in a collective manner, as seen earlier in “Firaaq”, “Mumbai Meri Jaan”, “Metro” and more. The style may seem to be a bit repetitive, but it’s the quality of the content which makes the movie appreciable and worth watching. It intelligently starts with a T.V. News highlighting the major incidents occurred during a particular day and then takes you back into a series of flashbacks giving the detailed accounts of each incident individually.

In the initial moments, it may seem to be a deliberate attempt by the director but as the stories develop, you start relating to them easily. The first half builds a clean platform for all the characters interlinked with each other. And as you are well familiar with the plots, it takes you into an explosive second half where every story is fast moving towards its own boiling point. In few words, the post interval proceedings turn the movie into a solid commendable effort by both its writer and the director.

The well written script, surrounding a complex web of relationships, touches almost every important social issue of the current times. It talks about communal hatred among the people, class differences in the society, rich exploiting industrialists, gangster’s extortion mafia, Jihaadi Movement in the country, misguided younger generation, mean political leaders, TRP driven channels, Migration problems in the Metros, Profit motives of the Hospitals, Medical Negligence by the Doctors and also the Spiritual Heritage of our country.

It may seem impossible to incorporate all the above mentioned plots in one movie alone, but director N. Chandra remarkably performs this tough task and that too with a great conviction and class. He is back in form again roaring like a lion with his own specialized genre of movies based on intense social problems. Chandra brilliantly handles each individual story with an equal importance and makes you feel the pain felt by all his character simultaneously. The hard hitting and impactful execution by the director leaves a solid impact on the viewer as he walks out of the theater...thinking.

Not going into details of each storyline, I would like to mention the most beautiful and important sub-plot of the movie involving a doctor, a judge and a victim harmed by the Medical Negligence of his doctor. The story teaches us the art of forgiving in a very pleasing manner. It explains the real meaning of the word empathy and its importance in our gifted short lives. I don’t remember any other movie talking about this subject in a more expressive way than “Yeh Mera India”. So, among all the other sub-plots, I rate this particular part of the movie as the most impressive and well directed one having the power to stay in your minds for long.

Talking about the performances, you can feel the heart and soul put in by all the actors performing in the movie. Thinking about each story individually you remember every single actor giving one of the best acts of his career including the veterans Anupam Kher, Rajat Kapoor and Seema Biswas. N. Chandra has splendidly extracted worth praising performances from his entire star-cast including the ones playing their minuscule roles. The song less movie also gets well supported by its soothing Background Score, fine Cinematography and crisp to the point editing.

Another worth mentioning ace is the use of “Urdu Shayri Couplets” incorporated with a heavy background voice, after every important incident in the movie. The deep meaning of the few lines spoken at an appropriate time, increase the overall impact of a sequence to many folds.

So, if you love the thought of living together as brothers, if you can feel the importance of the remaining years of your life and if you believe in sharing what you have in your possession, then “Yeh Mera India” will surely make you feel much better. The movie is not only about India alone, but it is about every country existing on the globe facing problems. It talks more about the concept of Universal Brotherhood and the urgency to understand its need in the current times. On merit basis, as it was “Mumbai Meri Jaan” in 2008, there is “Yeh Mera India” in 2009. Just go for it now!

Rating : 4 / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

Another movie holding the controversial tag of Plagiarism hits the theater this Friday. Highly inspired from “Death At A Funeral” released in 2007, this star ensemble flick is a very poor adaptation of the Original. Publicized as an enjoyable comedy, the movie falls flat as it neither has any good comic moments nor any enjoyable performances to cheer you up.

Based on a time span of few hours, it starts with the song “Daddy Cool” and then straight away enters the house where a funeral has been arranged. From there on the whole movie revolves around various characters visiting the premises to attend the funeral. Each character has his own short story angle, which is supposed to be funny but fails to deliver. The variety of sub-plots used in the narration, have nothing to offer in the name of comedy or entertainment. In fact, at times the forced humor goes overboard to the limits of being called weird and is not able to generate a healthy laughter (like in the bathroom sequence with Javed Jaffery and Prem Chopra).

There is nothing great about any particular half of the movie as it keeps on moving at a similar pace throughout. And the biggest disappointment comes watching it’s hushed up climax where suddenly everyone undergoes a heart transformation without any reason. The entire star-cast tries hard to make you laugh, but their efforts prove futile as they are not equipped with a good hilarious script. Among the male lead, Suniel Shetty, Javed Jaffery and Aftab try their best to make you smile but from the ladies it’s only Sophie who stands out with her stunning looks.

However, in an otherwise uninteresting attempt by the director K. Murli Mohan Rao, there is one intelligent move of not inserting any songs in the project. The songs are only used in the opening and ending titles of the movie which comes as a great relief for the viewer. The other technical departments also score just average and its really great that the movie finishes off in only 2 hours or else it would have been intolerable completely. Moreover, the funeral concept of everyone coming to mourn, dressed in their black suits has a very limited appeal for the Indian viewers.

In all, “Daddy Cool” is a very weak adaptation by the director and also a wrong choice of subject for a Hindi movie. With international production houses ready to initiate action on this plagiarism issue, its better we come up with some original ideas or take due permission from their makers before copying. Interestingly I also have my doubts on the climax being changed on a later stage in order to differentiate the movie from its original one. So, watch it at your own risk.

Rating : .5 / 5

(by Bobby Sing  from www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

At times watching a movie without knowing much about it, serves as a merit. And a project not supported by any great hype can easily surprise the viewer with its novel twists and turns. That’s exactly the case with “Sikander” which manages to impress you with a brilliant start and comes up with an overall above average product based on the burning issue of how children cope up with the tense situation in Kashmir.

The best part of the movie, which stays in your memory, is its opening moments with the deep baritone voice of “Mohit Chauhan” singing these immortal poetic lines of famous Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz :

After this breathtaking start, the story moves into the life of a young boy and girl, who are close friends studying in the same school. Their life goes for a big turn, when once while walking to their school, they find a Gun lying on the ground. The boy decides to pick it up and keeps it in his bag. From there on, he gets caught in the web of local politics and militants working on a big conspiracy. While watching the initial moments, you feel that the movie is made for a cause. But post intermission it starts moving towards a crime thriller genre and loses the realistic feel of the subject. Moreover, there are too many loopholes in the suspense element used towards its lengthy climax.

Parzaan Dastur, playing the title role of Sikander, performs well with an amazing ease and confidence. You can feel the innocence in his acts and facial expressions. Ayesha Kapur, on the other hand tries to deliver an arty performance deliberately. Sanjay Suri, as the politician and Madhavan, as the Army Officer, both deliver controlled and polished acts and impress. However the best show comes from the debutant Arunoday Singh, playing the Kashmiri Militant.

Director, Piyush Jha, comes up with a good project which could have been a much appreciated one, only if he had stuck to his basic theme. Though he started off well with a brilliant sequence but later bowed down to the commercial needs of the market. Kashmir, and its beauty has been captured well by the DOP, showing many spectacular locations on the screen. The Kashmir Militancy problem is also handled in a very impartial manner, where the military and the militants blame each other for the tense situation in the valley.

Piyush, surely seems to be impressed by the masterpieces made by the Iranian director Majid Majidi. A few sequences in the movie really remind you of Majid's great movies based on children and their thinking patterns. Like Majidi, Piyush also successfully maintains the feel of his project by using music and songs intelligently. The songs are not given much footage as per the subject but background music could have been more exciting and energetic.

In the industry where very few projects are made with children as their central characters, “Sikander” is an above average product which could have been much more impressive. In simple words, though it may not have great prospects commercially, but it surely is a sincere effort towards making an Indian Majidi movie.

Rating : 2.5 / 5