Ghanchakkar

The director tries to cash on the image of his actors’ last movie to the maximum…..

If Vidya Balan is in the movie, its next to impossible to start your views about the movie without her. After the long list of the movies she has done previously she has proved her mettle and become the better version of Lady Amir Khan (I know many people will kill me for saying this!!!). I don’t know whether it was her conscious decision to choose this movie or her director persuaded her to cash on her Kahani Image, but it works well. The entire marketing campaign also seems to be designed on that line. But let me tell you straight away, though she is extremely good in the movie, the hero is undoubtedly Imraan Hashmi. 

 

Sanju is an effortless master safe cracker but at the same time a true obedient Husband. He even takes his assignments on his wife’s approval. He takes this last big assignment to fulfill all the dreams of his flauntingly fashionista loud wife - Neetu and his dream of buying a “badda vala Flat screen TV’ (how fool the men can be!!). After the theft he becomes an erratic patient of selective amnesia and the director weaves a beautiful confusion around this situation and the special characters of his story. Rajkumar Gupta narrates this story in a very relaxed manner and keeps it slow paced untill the Climax. Suddenly during the last 20 minutes you will be on the edge of your seat playing guessing games in your mind. Luckily the director has his actors as his saviors during the dull moments.

  

Well, this surely does not fit into one of “THOSE” movies of Vidya Balan, but this must have given her some creative security. Imraan Hashmi scores big in this one. Lately he has been doing some really good variety work and this establishes him as a superlative actor. Namit Das has done extremely outstanding work. Rajesh Sharma is as usual excellent. The story looks like the director’s tedious effort to create unnatural confusion for the audience.  The dialogues of the movies are sometimes funny but some of the words like “yadasht” etc are overused. Music of the movie is catchy and nicely decorates the movie for marketing. None of the song is used for lipsing. All in all, movie is lacking the crispiness but still a good watch; atleast much better than those brainless movies where you are given a forced dose of formula entertainment.  

I had a conversation with one of my closest friend about this movie just after the show. We both were almost of totally opposite opinion about the movie.For him it was one of the crappiest movie but not for me. I kept trying to persuade him that it was not that bad and it is a good example of progressive cinema but he was not ready to budge. Surprisingly we both are big fan of Vidya Balan’s work. He hates Imraan Hashmi and I believe, he is one of the underrated actors of the industry!!!

Raanjhanaa

How Politics can ruin a beautiful story….

Politics can ruin love, politics can ruin career, politics can ruin life and Politics can ruin a beautiful story. This is Raanjhanaa!!! Just kidding! It’s not politics actually; it’s the people who start playing politics in their life ruin everything. Zoya played by a Sonam Kapoor is a Muslim girl of Banaras who is forced to fall in love with Kundan played by Dhanush in her childhood because of his consistency and typical small town – lower middle class approach to propose a girl by attempting suicide. He being a Hindu is not acceptable to her family. She retaliates; as a result parents send her to Aligarh for further studies to avoid Kundan’s proximity. But Kundan is madly in love with her and waiting her to come back. She comes back after 8 years and has forgotten Kundan (what bullshit!!). Kundan confronts her and she reveals that she loves somebody else from College. She uses Kundan to get her love. He being fully devoted to her, does whatever she says. But somewhere he has a feeling of revenge and he gets his chance. But his action leads to a dramatic turn in the story. This is first half which is a full package of entertainment. The tempo of the story is very gud up to here. 

The way the first half is edgy and spellbinding, second half is equally stretched and boring. The theme of the story gets lost somewhere. The focus of the story from the love shifts to ego fights. I agree that it is a natural progression in any love scenario. But the way it is portrayed, it does not suit story. The second half becomes a repeatedly tried story of a guy winning hearts of everyone by doing some stupid errands. And mind it, whatever is shown in movie for that cause looks petty and half baked. Towards climax, Zoya takes center stage with her feminist attitude and she even says – “Kundan, I thought you would atleast help me here but u started becoming hero yourself.” What crap!!! How much does she want to use him!!! That poor guy does everything to please her but she instead takes revenge and surrenders. 

Well I am not at all convinced by the story. I liked the sequences up to first half. But second half looks like a ‘build on set’ story. There is no depth in second half. Though the director has tried to make the character of Sonam very complex and that of Dhanush street smart & heroic and both did total justice to their characters but somehow director failed to give the characters a complete sketch and weave up a nice story around them. Acting wise, this can easily be said as the best performance of Sonam till date and Dhanush is simply outstanding; he is doing wonders when he does not know Hindi, if he learns the language, God know what he will do. Dialogues are the USP of the movies. The best dialogues are given to Murari (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub) and Swara Bhaskar has given another good performance as Bindiya. 

Music of the movie is average. Tum Tak and Raanjhanaa are good songs and both are filmed amazingly on the streets & Ghats of Banaras. The production design department really scores. All the real locations from Delhi to Banaras are used to give the movie a real look. I like one particular scene very much in the movie when some college students try to figure out why Kundan has become thief; they take all night and finally figure out the reason as poverty. I am not sure what director wants to say here! Is it the portrayal of a group of disillusioned youth doing dharnas everywhere blindly following some leader???

Fukrey

Amazed by the leaps Indian Cinema is taking..

Really, its amazing to see the new crop of Directors, Actors, Writers, Musicians, Singers, Technicians that is driving Indian Cinema to a new Horizon. These new generation people are threatening the traditional Hindi Cinema people by their talent and  either putting  these people on the sidelines or pushing them to try something new. Sanjay Leela Bhansali making a movie on Mary Kom, Karan Johar trying his hands in Bombay Talkies and other big film houses giving shelter to the new gen directors are amongst the few example of changing times. Ofcourse some people are put on sidelines and some have not taken lesson. And Shahrukh is trying to work with successful comedy Film Maker Rohit Shetty to save his career & brand somehow!!!

Fukrey is Directed by one of these new gen directors Mrighdeep Singh Lamba. As the name suggest, the guy is Punjabi and he has used his inheritance amazingly in the movie. The movie is based in Delhi and nicely depicts the present lifestyle of middle class Delhi people. It’s a story of basically two grown up school boys who are desperate to go to College for full time aishh. They are one of those backbenchers who have been serially failing in each class with arithmetic progression and will not be able to qualify for college. They meet a security guy of college who can get them their final exam paper in exchange of hefty sum of money. These two friends apart from being totally fukrey have one unique thing to their advantage - Choocha dreams and Hunny unravels his dram into a winning lottery number through which they make some petty cash. But this time to get into college they have to dream big. Come along Lali who also wants to get into college for his girlfriend and Ali, to pay for his father’s ailment. But of course they need some seed money to play lottery to win a big sum and they end up at the door of horrendous mafia called Bholi Punjaban who does all illegal business possible from supplying girls to Minister to drug distribution. The life takes turns for all four of them when they are not able to crack the correct lottery number and falls prey to Bholi Punjaban and then starts the thrilling fun. 

The story is totally fresh and earthy clung in the Delhi soil. It is not one of those slapstick comedy without any solid storyline, instead it stands out in this new genre of Hindi cinema – Comic Thriller. The story is the backbone, perfectly shaped by the body of direction, acting and music. I believe the story should be supreme but the characters should also be given the adequate depth. Here the two main characters do not seem to be fully developed. They are dreadfully in search of their youth in the form of college goers but apart from this fact and the fact that they have lottery winning capability nothing more is illustrated. Even if I discount this in wake of story, they should have been given at least a house or their parents, something to show their background. Director tries something with Ali, but that too looks like a mediocre effort to build the story. The same thing is tried with Lali but somehow the director managed to get him just right. The dialogues are quirky and picked up from real life. The way the young romance between Hunny and priya or girl using a guy (Lali) is portrayed, is totally from the real life of today’s school going kids.

Apart from minor forgettable mistakes including the unnecessary stretch to build the story, the director has done a fab job. In the acting department, Choocha aka Varun Sharma has totally stolen the show. Choocha is given the best dialouges in the movie. His timing is outstanding. Hunny aka Pulkit Samrat is awesome in acting and looks heroic. Lali aka Monjot singh is good in his part. Ali aka Zafar is neither given much nor he tried much. I expected a lot from Bholi Punjan aka Richa Chaddha but her part was really small and she did justice to that. I hope she does no more such roles to be type casted as a abusive bold female. Pandit aka Pakaj Tripathi has a significant role and he totally fits into it. Alas! Talent like him still do not get what they deserve (I hope you remember his portrayal of Sultan Quereshi of GOW). Priya looks sweet. Music of the movie is pretty situational. Ram Sampath has composed couple of really good songs. The songs are perfectly used to gear up the story wherever required. I feel movie could be edited a little bit more. But anyways its totally worth it. I cannot assure that people would laugh their hearts out or would be thrilled by the plot but definitely they will have frequent spats of laughs throughout the movie and a new feeling of being thrillingly happy by the end of it.

I am totally mesmerized by the contemporary Hindi Cinema. It has really come of age. Every week I am able to watch a good movie and never feel like wasting my hard earned money. Each movie looks like total paisa vasool though the definition of paisa vasool is changed a bit now. And the way the movies are being conceived and made presently, I am sure very soon we will grow to be a mature movie industry like Hollywood where every movie will have a unique story and all the genres will be appreciated at the same time. I am eagerly waiting to see the Hindi cinema growing to a stage where kids will aspire to become an actor, director, writer, musician, singer, cameraman, editor, producer, technician etc and they will not only be encouraged to do so but given proper opportunity to learn their subject and work as well in the industry without any prejudice to the few families running the entire show currently.

 

YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI

A perfect escape destination – Ye Jawani Hai Deewani.

Yes the movie is a perfect example of escapism. A Full on candy Floss- Fantasy -Formula love story with a tinch of reality checks here & there. It appears to be very modern and todays love story though it is almost a replica of 18 years old DDLJ. Dot by dot the story is same. Group of friends go to have a trip. The guys tease girls and girl finally falls for guy without knowing whether the guy also thinks same. And yes, the guy also realizes that and follows his love to a mega wedding ceremony which last for entire second half. Only difference here is the characters themselves and their dream are the major roadblock in the love story instead of their families. And eventually they overcome it. There is nothing much new in the story here but what new is the treatment, the way the story is being portrayed. Kudos to this young chap – Ayan Mukherjee who took up such a big challenge of redefining an old love story and man, he did his job!!!

Surely he is supported by the bestest contemporary acting talent of India – Ranbir Kapoor, without a doubt one of the finest actor; Deepika Padukone – the hottest girl in town and man, she has learnt acting!!!, Kalki  - no words for her, she is an outstanding actor; be it a helplessly in love courtesan in DevD or be it a vulnerable young girl in search of her father in Girl in Yellow Boots , be it a bitchy fiancée of Zindagi na milegi Dobara or here a sweet but practical girl who in the beginning is in love with a guy who cares a damn for her transforms to a much practical girl who finds her love in guy who loves her immensely.  This guy – Aditya Roy Kapoor is loaded with talent but he has to be really smart now onwards in choosing his movies. He can’t just keep doing any role in every movie his brother is producing.

Ayan has worked on the treatment really well. The pace of the movie is awesome. Nowhere does the movie looks slow infact at some points of time the pace is so speedy that it just appears to be slap on your face saying what else do you want in this scene. One such example is formation of triangle between Rana Duggubati, Ranbir & Deepika and just the very next moment the triangle just vanishes in the air. The movie is nowhere stretched out yet an almost 2 hr 40 minute saga. But I have to admit here; at times I felt that it should go on a bit more for a while.

The characters are contemporary – ambitious, self-indulged in search of love. But the story is basically of a guy (Ranbir) who does not care much of relations and wants to achieve a lot in life. Since Ayan has made this character the center point of the movie, he did not work much or say he did not give much thought to other characters. Or one reason could be he had to handle three more equally important characters so he could not weave the story for each of them. Deepika who is main protagonist is also sideline a few times. One such scene is where she had to dance in the sangeet and Ranbir helps her but intern makes it his own affair rather making her dance stand out. I would say the second best written character in the movie is of Kalki. And the least importance is given to Aditya’s character. He is shown as alcoholic, gambler playboy. But just that!! Nothing more. You will be confused what he was there for? To be the one sided love interest of kalki!!! Well I am not sure what Ayan wanted to do with this character but anyways all in all, things just fall in place and movie looks awesome. The dialogues are really punchy. From contemporary double meaning (oh sorry, now they are called single meaning) punches to some really soul searching dialogues, they create the magic exactly where it is required. One such I remember – “life main sab kuch nahi kar sakte tum, kuch to chhhodna hi padega”. There were many more which I just wanted to remember but don’t remember now.

The Entire team has done a great job. Ayan first and foremost for a totally fresh screenplay and outstanding direction making an old story look so connecting. All the technicians – good job done by the cameraman and editor. But still editor did not have much to do here. Most of the time I say that the songs should always be edited and just few lines should be kept. But it is not the case here. The actors are so good looking and dancing & acting so awesome that you want to see the entire song. The chemistry of not only the protagonist but all four people with each other is amazing. In one of the interview Ranbir said – “Acting is so overrated”. I don’t agree with him. Only good acting can make you sit through a long story with all the routine songs.

Music just adds flavor to the movie. It changes genre as per the movie requirement. Cinematography is totally justified, same is production design. I have some complaints with makeup and costume departments. A studious, boring girl is wearing miniskirts everywhere, even for grocery shopping or for mountain climbing. There has to be some justification here. I agree that Deepika is glamorous but making her wear jeans or something nerdy clothes wouldn’t have created much stress to the movie. She anyways looks good. And to much of my surprise, the camera was mostly focused on her face in first half of the movie. So if you had to do that why mini skirt!!!

Anyway all silly faults I am picking out because I don’t have much to crap about. I know it is a perfect escapist movie and I enjoy such movies in their true form. So let it be. It’s a delicious strawberry cake served, we can forget if the icing are little weird. It still tastes awesome!!! J