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Mardaani
-A Wake up Call for All
In the era of Bollywood’s tough cops Chulbul Pandey and Bajirao Singham, Rani as Shivani Shivaji Rao welcomes a refreshing change. Rani Mukherji doesn’t play tomboy, her role on the contrary is to fight her bit in the man’s world. She has reiterated her star value with her first post-marriage film and how!
Shivani Shivaji Rao (Rani Mukherji) is a tough and fearless senior inspector in Mumbai’s Crime Branch who puts her heart and soul into her job. She is out to bust a human-trafficking racket run by a mafia Kingpin named Walt (Tahir Raj Bhasin) in Delhi, the hub of crimes. She has to follow the trail fast as everyone who gives her links closer to Walt is killed at crucial points of her investigation. Does she become successful or is she heading towards her own doom?
The story such as this where a cop is on a chase to catch a criminal is predictably fast paced, but engages and connects emotionally with the sensitive topic of sex trade and prostitution. Like `No One Killed Jessica`, the movie wakes you up to the injustice of the world and to the crime that is horrendous to even think about. Pradeep Sarkar paints a great picture of our law keepers and weaves a plot with gripping twists and turns.
Rani has delivered one of her best performances, and even becomes a role model of sorts. She even manages to garner many an applause for her spell binding acting. She has not tried to look like a man nor is she all glamour or sans make-up. Tahir is a revelation of sorts and plays the brooding baddie, and immediately draws hatred to his dark character. He plays his role to perfection just as the entire supporting cast does. It is proof of how a good supporting cast can make a whole world of a difference to a movie. Even though it is a Rani-centric film, the supporting cast contributes substantially in making it more realistic. The lack of absurd and over the top action is a relief, and the dialogues aren’t nonsensical but have an element of melodrama which only adds to the style of the filmmaker. The Yash Raj franchise has indeed gone out of their conventions with a story of such a sort which is peculiar to their usual forte. Filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar deserves a pat on his back for this one. He not just brings out the best from the cast, but also makes sure Mardaani accounts for a great watch.
The film has to power to invoke deep thought over sensitive but important subjects that are the need of the hour. It succeeds in having a long-lasting impact and even gives goose bumps at key junctures. It is a film that has its heart in the right place and tells a story at a time when it must be most heard.
By Disha Munoth
Bobby Jasoos- Vidya steals the show!
Vidya Balan has done it again. Bobby Jasoos might not be the best of the movies but it certainly has a different approach. Living in the crowded alleys of old Hyderabad, Bilqis Ahmed aka Bobby aspires to be a big detective someday. She is sick of all the silly cases that come her way and is looking for that one big break. NRI, Anees Khan (Kiran Kumar) gives her just this. He is ready to pay her large sums of money in exchange for finding two girls with only their names and birthmark as a lead on. From peon to astrologer to a fat TV serial producer, Bobby becomes it all in her ‘jasoosi ’mode. However, her father who disagrees with her ways and wants her to get married soon, gives her the silent treatment throughout. While our lady detective has successfully tracked down the faceless girls, another problem comes her way. Tasawur (Ali Fazal), popular TV anchor who took Bobby’s help to find faults in the girls his strict father chose for him, asks for her hand in marriage. Now, with the wedding preparation in full swing, Bobby gets her next assignment from Khan- to find a man named Ali.Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, Bobby learns that the girls she tracked down for Anees Khan have gone missing. Now, Bobby darling (no pun intended) needs to find out more about the cunning Khan, try to stop the wedding, mend relations with her fatherand save her pretty cousin from the local goon, Lala (Arjan Bawja), she is romancing. Will Bobby be able to do all this singlehandedly? You’ll just have to see to know. The movie has a feel-good factor to it. You’ll find it quirky and energetic. Vidya Balan steals the thunder as usual with her impeccable acting and almost neat Hyderabadi accent. Ali Fazal also has a really good screen presence. The supporting cast have been chosen well. Supriya Pathak who played Bobby’s mother has done a nice job. Prasad Barwe has got his comical timing right. The music numbers are only average. Now, for its share of flaws, there was the quite obvious and irritable age gap between Vidya and Ali. Also, let’s not leave the filmy twists behind. Just when you are thinking ‘okay, this looks different’, they go and do something stupid. For example, Tasawur and Bobby are manhandled by guards after they break in to a hotel room. Now, the security ‘happens ’to pull out Tasawur’s buttons and loosen Bobby’s saree in the process. Standing outside the 5 star hotel for no reason at all is Bobby’s father who sees them in such a state and comes to the most clichéd conclusion of all times. Apart from this, the movie’s suspense seemed pretty scary initially but when it’s finally out, you realize it was not such a big deal at all. The idea behind the story seems pretty different but more work should have been put in the polishing of the script. All in all, the movie is just a one-time thing.Vidya and her kickass acting makes it an average watch. Happy weekend!
By Priyanka Parthasarathi
Heropanti - Falls Flat
The Story goes like: A boy (Babloo) falls for a girl (Dimpy), the girl has a strict father, the girl's sister has eloped with the boy's best friend, the boy helps the best friend in hiding, the boy impresses the father by saving his daughter from goons, the boy over-impresses the father by being a good boy, the girl naturally Has to love him, the boy doesn't agree to elope with the girl without the fathers' consent, but the father ultimately agrees, credits. No prizes for guessing, but this is what Heropanti is all about. It gives an obvious picture of typical formula film making in Bollywood, a storyline seen umpteen number of times in Indian cinema.
The only difference is that the two lead roles are given newbies. It is an obvious launch pad for Tiger Shroff into Bollywood but he disappoints. Tiger Shroff may have good parkour and dancing skills, but he has a long way to go before he establishes himself as an actor. Kriti Sanon acts her small part well, but nothing remarkable to get notice. The only saving grace of the movie is Prakash Raj with his impeccable act as the strict-but-caring father of the heroine and some songs like "Raat Bhar" and "Whistle baja" that have catchy foot-tapping tunes.
The direction of Sabir Khan after his last Kambakh Ishq has definitely grown, but deserves no great credit for a movie with such a predictable and repetitive storyline. He tries to bring in the sensitive concept of honour killing, but as the movie proceeds his direction goes well deviated from this point. The dialogues are the biggest miss in the entire film, where the script-writers have tried to use the tested-formula of punch lines as seen in the recent masala movies like Dabangg and R Rajkumar. But, they fall flat with Tiger's forced and expressionless delivery.
By Disha Munoth
Two States- A Single State of Joy
Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl fall in love. The next obvious step would be the boy and girl getting married, right? Well, it's not that simple. Based on the best-selling novel by ChetanBhagat, Two States is a story of Krish Malhotra (played by Arjun Kapoor) and Ananya Swaminathan (Alia Bhatt) both hailing from different states and communities, and the challenges they face in convincing their respective families for matrimony.
Set in the IIM campus of Ahmedabad, Krish is a studious Punjabi boy, who instantly falls for the most beautiful girl on campus, Ananya from Chennai. What follows is a trip from Ahmedabad to Chennai to Delhi to Mumbai to Chennai again, in a quest to seek the parents' approval and win their prospective in-laws over. The story unravels beautifully, with Abhishek Varman mastering the art of story-telling in his first directorial venture. Shnakar-Ehsaan-Loy has delivered perhaps one of their best works. The movie faces its fair share of hiccups along the way, for example, it could have included more comic relief, and the background score did not always match the emotions of the scenes.
But did the movie do justice to the book? Absolutely, perfectly infusing the Bollywood larger-than-life moments with just the right amount of relatability Alia Bhatt excels in her role of the feisty Ananya, but the movie truly belongs to Arjun Kapoor, whose role of Krish is miles apart from the characters he has played before, proving his versatility as an actor. Amrita Singh plays the part of the overbearing Punjabi mother to perfection, and Ronit Roy moves us with his performance as the abusive father. Revathi and Shiva Subramaniam are the perfect Tamil Brahmin parents on screen. The audience find themselves living the emotions they portray, leaving us rooting for the happily-ever-after throughout. Watch Two States for some laughs, tears, but most importantly, a heartwarming lesson to take away that it's not about what community you want to marry into, it's the type of person you want to spend your life with.
By Priyanka Rajagopalan
Ek VILLAIN
Ritesh,Siddharth makes it Watchable
'Ek Joke sunaoo?' Ek villain! Mohit Suri's latest fails to keep up with its image of a terrifying murder thriller because of the overload of filmyness that it possesses. The overhyped trailer bought in a packed theatre but only to sigh in disappointment. The climax is revealed in the first scene itself while the rest of the movie is just a cat and mouse chase between the two villains. The movie opens with Ayesha (Shraddha Kapoor) sharing a joke with a Ganesha idol buckled up in the passenger seat of her jeep. Well! She is a simple, bubbly, always-happy girl who likes cracking a lot of jokes. Ayesha happens to see Guru (Siddharth Malhotra) a gangster with a troubled past in a police station where he is being beaten out of his daylights. She decides to save his life and asks him for help to kidnap an old man out of a mental hospital. Quite dangerous huh? He however agrees after she keeps screaming 'Ae Villain' all the time. Anybody would! He later finds out that she is actually a do-gooder who is dying of an unnamed disease and has a bucket list of wishes. They both set out to fulfil them, fall in love and get married. Oh by the way, she is completely cured of her disease now. That escalated quickly. Enter, Rakesh (Ritesh Deshmukh) who is a lousy electrician and has a dominating wife who insults him all the time. He takes out his anger by killing any women who tells him off, with a screwdriver. The story revolves around how Rakesh destroys the cheerful life that Ayesha and Guru have created for themselves. The script might have been better if not for its highly predictable ending and a lot of drama. The highlights of the movieare its catchy music numbers, Kamaal R Khan's creepy wife-beater actand Ritesh Deshmukh who shed his comedy actor tag to portray one of the best roles of his career. Siddharth Malhotra has done a really good job as the brooding, good looking thug. Shraddha could have been better. Go for this movie if you think making sense out of everything is not such a big deal or if you just have the hots for Siddharth Malhotra and want to watch Ritesh's bad boy acting. The latter is far more forgivable.
By Priyanka Parthasarathi
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
-"Humpty…has a great fall"
Straight up, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania has all the markings of a classic Karan Johar movie. It is even touted to be a modern tribute of sorts to the legendary Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. But then, just like the titular character’s namesake, it falls flat.
The story seems to be stitched from pieces of a lot of Tamil and Telugu movies, particularly in the dragging second half. Girl wants to prove something, moves to the big city weeks before her wedding, meets loafer-boy hero due to unexpected circumstances, they join to fight something, fall in love, girl’s wedding looms, boy must convince her father. Same old, same old. Except here, there are a few more colourful bits thrown in that don’t always make sense. Or maybe they do, in a world where Humpty is an acceptable name, cute even.
Of course the hero, his friends and his struggling father (who has been saving up for years to buy the car of his dreams) pool in all their money to ensure that the poor little daughter of a rich businessman gets to splurge on a designer lehenga that her father thinks is too extravagant. Of course the girl sticks to thenever-far-from-a-beer-bottle-or-cigarette hero, instead of the perfect NRI teetotaler. Of course she chooses the guy who runs a stationery shop instead of the doctor. Of course she prefers the dude who will smash a bottle over the head of an ogler, instead of the composed man who calls the police. Didn’t Simran do the same in DDLJ? But here’s the catch. In DDLJ, Raj was the quintessential hero, whose character could melt even Amrish Puri, and his nemesis, Kuljeet, was the haughty, characterless douche with a lot of attitude. Humpty…shows us where the adage “Nice guys finish last” comes from.
The movie does pay its tribute to DDLJ, trying to do it in a modern way. The girl chugs down beer faster than the guy, they consummate their relationship before even declaring their love, the guy weeps when he finds out that the girl is married through her Facebook status update, his faithful friends discover a flaw in the perfect groom by stalking…..his Facebook profile. The girl even does the classic SRK-arms-wide-open pose. Where the movie is anything but modern is in its portrayal of homosexuality. It serves as a wannabe comedy track, even while blatantly stating that it is something that is being widely accepted in our country.
Humpty…does have its comic moments, particularly in some scenes between Humpty and his friends, and Humpty and his potential father-in-law. The emotional scenes are listless, and seem to have a comic undercurrent to them. Overall, the film tries a little too hard to not be serious and gets long. Varun Dhawan is earnest and good in some scenes; he needs to work on being a little more effortless. Alia Bhatt shines in a role that far limits her capabilities. The songs are nothing to boast about, except perhaps for Tenu Samjhawan Ki, which is pleasant, and Saturday Saturday, which is annoyingly catchy. Watch this one if you’re a die-hard fan of either of the leads or are extremely bored. Otherwise, just wait for it to be out on TV.
By Sanjana Gautham
KICK
-"Get your ‘kick’ this weekend"
Before you have preconceived notions about this movie just being another typical Salman Khan masala entertainer like Dabangg, Ready, Wanted, etc by looking at its posters, let me break the ice and tell you it’s not like any of them. Sajid actually wants to convey beyond entertainment, a social message in this Salman Khan-Jaqueline starrer magnum opus.
Devi lal (Salman Khan) is an extra ordinary human being who looks for a kick in everything that he does, because living a life like a normal human being is boring, instead he chooses a way to reverse that psychology into selfishly ‘being human’ in a very bizarre way. Before you wonder what the ‘kick’ concept is, let me tell you that the makers have written the story in such a way that all his idiosyncrasies and strange habits and behavior seem utterly ridiculous but they make sense when the story unfolds to its logical end in the climax. It is a journey of Devi lal to being a daring thief named ‘Devil’ with a police inspector ( Randeep Hooda ) chasing him around in Poland (because Bollywood seems to be out of countries to go to) and then in Delhi but Devil has other plans for a local baddie, the Home ministers’ nephew (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who is yet again another psycho. A psychiatrist named Shiana (Jaqueline Fernandez) ironically, plays this psycho Devil’s love interest but has no real role other than being the narrator for most of the first half and then disappears there-after.
Salman Khan has never looked better; he seems confident and relaxed in playing the roles of both Devi lal and Devil. On one hand he seems very annoying as Devi lal while playing stupid antics, but he is convincing with his death glare as the Devil and the dialogues are custom-made for him and suit his personality for an aura that his fans would eat at. Randeep Hooda also has some brilliant scenes thanks to Rajat Arora’s dialogues. Jaqueline Fernandez does not act but adds glam to the film with her presence and surprises in the song Jhumme ki Raat with a jaw-dropping solo one-minute act. Nawazuddin steals the show each time he comes on-screen with his haunting laugh that bring in the required creeps. The first half felt a little drab where the movie seemed directionless, but it catches on in the second half and grips the viewers with Salman Khan’s impossible action, a little suspense and some thrilling yet emotional moments.
It ends up giving you the much needed kick after a hectic week; it can be watched once.
By Disha Munoth
It's Entertainment
-"Don't Entertain entertainment
Entertainment is a name very misleading to what this film actually has to offer. It offers ridiculous and illogical so-called ‘comedy’ along with in-the-face forced mockery of almost all existing Bollywood films in the name of catchy and rhyming(that make no sense) dialogues.
It is a story of AkhilLokhande( Akshay Kumar) who does four different jobs to aid his hospitalized father. But wait, in the next scene we come to know that the man he’s been working hard for is not his father but some random stranger who adopted him for money and then Akhil’s world goes topsy-turvy. But in the next 5 minutes of the movie, he realizes he’s the son of a multi-millionaire diamond merchant. But wait, that man is dead and has left his wealth to a dog named ‘Entertainment’ (because Tommy and Scooby are names too mainstream for a millionaire dog). Akhil’s love interest Sakshi’s (Tamnnah) dad wants to marry off his daughter to this multi-millionaire dog. (Because who cares if it’s a multimillionaire human or a dog – point is, he should be rich.) Akhil wants to fight for his fathers’ fortune but BAM!, enter his second cousins Karan and Arjun (Prakash Raj and SonuSood) who leave no stone unturned in mocking themselves but are behind Entertainment’s wealth too. Are you able to follow this story? Because I can’t. Maybe that’s because there is no story really.
The storyline was probably written as the film shooting went by and in the end the makers finally thought of sending a message through – to treat animals with respect and love. It assures early that no animals were harmed during the making of the film, but the animal looked thoroughly bored. Junior (the dog named ‘Entertainment’) tries, but he looks confused and has a good reason with the kind of humans that surround him. They talk in puns and rhymes that are loud, over-animated and loony. The script seems attention-seeking and desperate to draw laughs. But it fails and you’ll probably just end up rolling your eyes at each jarring and unconvincing one-liner.
Given that Junior has his name in the credits before Akshay Kumar, a nice move on the part of the filmmakers, you'd expect he would have more to do. Instead for the most part Junior looks listless or is a prop in the gags. Nearing the end, it’s shocking to see Akhil do what he does to save Entertainment's life as he lies in the hospital bed in typical Bollywood fashion. The world as they say has really gone to the dogs. Such films shouldn’t be entertained at all.
By Disha Munoth