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Lady Bird (2017)
So relatable for Indian middle class
When i read Anne Frank's memoirs, there were so many comparisons I could draw from a jew girl during second world war and Indian youth who's been imposed with many restrictions. Lady Bird evoked similar feelings.
Lady Bird centers around a teenager, Christine Mcpherson, named christine by her parents hut prefers to be addressed as Lady Bird. Her father working in a company which is constantly laying off many employees, her mother is working rigorously to make her ends meet. Her brother is working in a mall and lives with her girlfriend. Lady bird constantly feels that she is superior than most, feels ashamed of financial status of her family. Her mother constantly keeps telling her that she's ungrateful and ignorant about plight of her family. She constantly feels she's destined for bigger things and her background, surroundings keep pulling her down.
She finds a cute boy who happens to be very rich, he turns out to be gay who hasn't come out of closet yet. She then starts hanging out with a popular girl, distancing her best friend in process. She meets kyle who talks about utopian concepts of having no money, having exotic dreams etc. She ends up losing her virginity to him, which is obviously a big deal for her, however her first time is quite underwhelming, she also finds out that kyle lied about being virgin. She quickly realizes that life which she always found intriguing isn't all what it seems, all that glittered wasn't gold. And she realizes who're really important for her, who'll stand by her in the real tough times, why she should embrace her family.
As it goes in hindi,
Khaya piya aish kiya!
However above line could not be farther from the truth, just because of sheer treatment of the film, because every character looks like people you know, you can see Mrs Mcpherson in nagging mother of your friend, you can see a kyle in your newsfeed having a DSLR camera, not once this film gets melodramatic, you can believe that this things are said/done by real people, some of the scenes, moments stay with you even after a week and you ponder over it. (I watched it 10-12 days back)
This film does leaves you yearning why does not hindi cinema make such films, why does a person need to relate with a girl in sacramento, why does a person needs to draw parallels between middle class in third world country and white trash in USA?
India have had some attempts but most compromise on genuineness in exchange of melodrama!
Bãhubali: The Beginning (2015)
Baahubali - India has arrived
The Bahubali- The beginning
The Reason of writing the review after 4 weeks of the movie: I asked a friend if he had seen Bahubali, he replied he was not very sure about how will it be. I have watched it 4 times in cinema hall was quite baffled to know that many of friends are yet to catch the movie. So this goes out to the people who still have some doubts about the movie.
I will start the review by remembering two legendary movie reviewers and inspiration to all movie critics of our time Shri Kamal R Khan and Arvind Kejriwal. I wish I could understand movies as closely as they can.
Bahubali-The beginning 10th directorial venture by S S Rajamauli is a period drama which draws inspiration from several Mahabharata stories. It stars Telugu superstar Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubatti and Tamannah in lead roles, supported by strong ensemble cast of Nassar, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj.
It has one of the oldest, common tried and tested story of a child who is destined to achieve greatness and defeat the evil against all odds. It is made into two parts, second will be released next year. Though story is very common the way it is narrated it is brilliantly breathtaking, the movie is 3 hours long though I barely found some people who found it long. It is that much riveting. A child is found in a river just like Shri Krishna is found by tribal people who grows up to become Prabhas is fascinated by the waterfall and the great mountain. He tries to conquer the heights, his destiny awaits him. Saga of revenge, betrayal, love story this one has it all.
The sheer scale with which the movie is made astounding, the movie is said to be made in the budget of 250 Cr. Such great sets, brilliant VFX and great war choreography makes this one an outstanding film. Some the scenes are bound to stay in the memories of audience for a long time to come. This movie has summoned more than 25 artists, produced 15000 sketches for the ornaments of Queen to accessories of element, to the swords everything you can think of. Well, cynic mind might say that movies have already been made which are grander than this then how is this one any different. I beg you to go through this below scene.
Mother of Shiva (prabhas) in this movie vows to Lord Mahadev that she will do abhisheka of the Shiva-Linga for 108 times if Lord Mahadev convinces his son to abandon his desire to climb the mountain. As She is old she cannot do this and to prevent his mother from doing so Shiva uproots the big Shiva Linga and carries it on his shoulder and takes it to waterfall so that Shiva Linga will get abhisheka every second, one of the most beautifully captured scene where background music is Shiv tandv Stotram. If you remember Shiv Tandav Stotram was written by Ravan. Ravan a devout of Lord Shiva begged Lord Shiva to go to Lanka with him, to which Lord Shiva refused so he lifted the whole Kailash parvat and Lord Shiva put down his foot down causing Ravana to get trapped under the mountain, in excruciating pain he wrote Shiv Tandav Stotram which please Lord Shiva, similarly in this scene Shiva carries the Shiv Linga on his shoulders and Shiv Tandav Stotram is played. Absolute master class.
Acting:
Prabhas is extremely charismatic, so is Rana Daggubatti. Anushka Shetty might bring memories of Rakhi of Karan Arjun. Tamannah does a decent job. As I have watched it in Hindi, I cannot comment on dialogs but one thing stands out SMILE. Smile of Prabhas as he helps an old man stand up, Grin of Rana when he awaits the mad bull or army of enemies approaching him, Rana makes you fall for him effortlessly.
Music:
Back ground music is the backbone of a period film and M M Kareem or M M Kirawani does a brilliant job. Of course, songs may not be as soothing for the Hindi audience but the greats like A R Rahman also finds it difficult to makes tunes which can be easily adapted to all languages. But songs like Dheewara, or the back ground music of Anushka Shetty and chants of Bahubali will make you tap your feet. One or two songs for Hindi audience could have been avoided.
All in all with a story which is very accessible and universal to audience not only in India but overseas as well, master class execution by S S Rajamauli this is a gem of a film which must not be missed by a cinema lover.
Comparing this with other Hollywood movies, if not better it will walk straight into the club of finest period drama. With crisp story telling and creative war sequence which is high on one thing that represents India, 'Jugaad'. Yes, I have seen Braveheart, Gladiator, 300, Hercules, Troy and many others but war sequence of this one makes the rest look like 'paani kam chay tongue emoticon '
Note: watch it in cinema hall, this movie with it grand scale deserves to be watched on cinema hall rather than televisions.
- SmartAash
Baby (2015)
Baby is Baap of all thrillers in Bollywood
Yes I know for all movies of Akshay Kumar I might have been a little biased and exaggerative. For instance I wrote a positive review for ACTION REPLAY, and some of my friends are still asking for movie as they thought it would be a good movie. But for this one I don't need to write false praises. Everyone knows that Akshay Kumar does one good film after 4 bad films, well , this is that one good film.
Third roller-coaster ride from Neeraj Pandey and his second with Akshay Kumar. Baby is the biggest film of Neeraj in terms of scale compared to previous two. As the credits roll, Danny Denzogpa is narrating the origin of Team Baby and conveys that this is a story of their last scene. Akshay Kumar said in an interview this movie is a homage to those people who fight for nation relentlessly, but never get recognized due to th very nature of their job. People from Army and Police may get optimum job satisfaction when their effort are recognized but this people are never given due credit. He could not be more correct.
Casting: Akshay Kumar is the heart of the team baby, supported by Rana, Tapsee, Danny and finally Anupam Kher on various missions. Action is very realistic and comes naturally to Akshay Kumar. Young actors like Varun Dhavan, Siddharth Malhotra should take noted on how to do action movies, and young actresses like Tiger Shroff should learn from Tapsee Pannu. :p Rasheed Naz and Kay Kay Menon impresses. Small roles of Murali Sharma , Jameel and Sushant are also terrific.
Music: If RD was alive, or Kalyanji Anandji who gave memorable score for Don, they will give standing ovation to great foot tapping back ground music which compliments core idea of the film. One song sung by Papon is also commendable.
What's wrong? Usually in this section I discuss what's wrong in the movie, this time lets discuss what's wrong with the critics? Some are saying this movie is 'khichdi' of three four movie namely, Argo and D Day among other. If you want to know what is 'khichdi' please watch 'krish 3'. Some are objecting to length of movie. Yes, movie is bit too long but at no point in movie it gets tedious or bore some which is actually an achievement. Some critics are saying it is 'INSPIRED' by Argo. If you want to know what is an 'INSPIRED' movie please watch movies produced by Mahesh Bhatt.
In the end, after A Wednesday, Special Chabbees, Neeraj Pandey raises the bar again and audience is already hoping for a sequel. May our wish come true. 9/10
PK (2014)
pk
Rajkumar Hirani is back with his fourth directorial venture, teaming up with Amir Khan for second time after successful outing in Three Idiots. Last time they took on Education System and this time they are taking on God and Godmen. It is an attempt to have a sarcastic take on religions and their practices.
Story is being narrated by Anushka Sharma about her friend; PK. PK is an alien whose remote which enables him to return to his planet gets stolen. And the quest to find that remote is begun. He is 'alien' to these conditions, unaware of simplest concepts of clothes, fashion, food, money etc. from one perspective this may seem unique, but is very similar to old Hindi movies where protagonist from village comes to city and is flabbergasted by norms and methods of cities resulting in funny incidents. Same follows here as well. He meets Sanjay Dutt by accident, literally. After a regular song sequence he heads to Delhi to find the remote. After certain failures, someone tells him only GOD can save him. He is naturally surprised by this, the fact that GOD has answers to all questions, solution to all problems, remedies for all tragedies, astonishes them. He tries to find GOD. Will he succeed? That's the basic plot, during which spontaneous situations occur where contradictions between every religion provides the humor. What Works in The Movie:
Amir Khan has done his best to portray a Bhojpuri speaking Alien. Performance of Saurabh Shukla is commendable; he has really come into his own since Jolly LLB and has started getting roles he deserve. Anushka Sharma is the usual girl, underused to say the least. What Goes Wrong in The Movie: 1. EDITING. Rajkumar Hirani is Ex Student of FTII, Pune where he completed course in Editing. Hence His editing has been brilliant in his previous movies, 3 idiots is one of the best edited movie. but in this one it is horribly wrong. First half seems entertaining but second half feels stretched. And the FINAL TWIST could be seen by a miles distance. Scene where he puts a stone outside a college and people start worshipping it, has no relation with the main story of the movie.
2. Music: in one interview Hirani said when he watches his old movies, he always feels something can be improved. He pointed out that song in Munnabhai MBBS 'chan chan' was irritating. I am sure when Hirani watches PK again he would use scissors on at least two songs.
3.Shashtrarth: those who are not aware with this word, it is like a 'rap battle' between two intelligent people who would debate on any given issue and one gladiator of words will emerge victorious. In the end, there's build up to the scene where Amir Khan's Character argues with Saurabh Shukla. Of course cautions are used to avoid controversies, or hurt sentiments. But when they are discussing about Religion or GOD, shouldn't they have also consider some logical preachers so that point of view from both side can be understood. For example if we are having Bollywood vs Hollywood argument. Hollywood sends Steven Spielberg and we send KRK. So what should have been a constructive debate ends up being a monologue. We know that Hirani is trying to make this movie since 2010 but during this period, people have already seen 'OMG'. audience might feel a little 'déjà vu' due to many similarities between both. Aim of this movie should have been placing arguments from both sided but this one unfortunately passes predetermined judgments. For instance all religious believers are shown superstitious. There are rational people who believe in GOD and are religious might find this a bit biased. So in the end, the movie which was dubbed as most awaited movie of the year, ends up being a just above average movie.
My Rating: 6/10
Haider (2014)
Haider To be or not to b
Haider, adaptation of Shakespeare's Hemlet, where Shahid Kapoor is playing lead role of Hemlet, the one role every actor wishes to play in their career, role which has been immortalized by likes of John Barrymore (yeah grandfather of Drew Barrymore ). Shahid is one of those mediocre actors who flourishes and is a whole different person when working with a good director.
Coming to the movie, just like other adaptations from Vishal Bhardwaj this movie is set in unexpected situation. Who can imagine Hamlet being set up in Kashmir, not beautiful Kashmir we love from Shammi Kapoor era, but Kashmir that is bursting of tension. Haider's father is caught by army while he was trying to operate a militant Haider comes back to Kashmir and he finds that his mom Gazala played by Tabu is getting exceedingly close to his uncle Kay Kay Menon. He is clearly not comfortable by this and he is led to the confusion that they are rather happy in the whole situation. His love interest is played by Shradhha Kapoor who has done up to standard acting. While Shahid is searching for his father, director has shown through various scenes the violations of human rights on Kashmir people by Army. Shahid is slowly losing patience and his mind, and that's when he meets Irrfan who informs him that his father is dead and he has given the message to Shahid to avenge his death and kill Kay Kay Menon. Kay Kay Menon also tells him completely different story about his father's situation of missing and his death. Now now now that's when protagonist is faced with the dilemma to be or not be? Me hu ke nai? Haum hai ke nahi? Cinematography is purely marvelous. But you will not feel pleasure , you will be aware of tension that is always there. Music is great, you will not listen to this songs again maybe but they compliment story. Screenplay is might seem a little slow acting of every actor is par excellence. Tabu has shown she is the best actor for roles with different layers, Kay Kay is under rated he deserves a special mention. Shahid is superior. Overall it is easily one of the top 10 movies of this year. You would take many thing from this movie with you such as dialogues of Irrfan, Salman Khan , Chutzpah and English that is used in movie from many characters among many other things.
Now coming to the issue of portrayal of Kashmir and Indian Army, yes it Biased. With capital B. how a doctor who is trying to save a terrorist without informing his own country's army, might be difficult to understand for many. On a particular scene where he is asked by wife, aap kis side par he? He replied Jindgi ki side par Which sounds lame. But banning or boycott of it might not be a solution, because since when political movies are expected to be neutral? It also shows how innocent citizens are fooled are misled by terrorists for their ultimate goals but it is too little. One of my personal opinion is political movies should not be made on real stories, because 90 % cases, we rarely know the truth, we are fed by propaganda by media and based on that a movie is made sounds bit illogical. Remember Rambo movie, I forgot which was it, but it showed an American trying to save AFGHAN people from Russians, looks very funny after 15-20 years now. Rating this movie among other adaptation of Shakespeare by Vishal I would be place them as follow:
1.Omkara 2. Maqbool 3. Haider i give this 8/10.
Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara! (2013)
ye tune kya kia
ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBARA, DOBARA KOI NAI DEKHEGA. I feel sad when good directors, actors, technical staff waste too much money on a big movie and result is this bad. DHOOM and HERAPHERI are the only decent sequels in Hindi in terms of quality. First movie was decent led by AJAY DEVGN and IMRAN. But this is total disaster, biggest problem is in what is this movie about? Is it gangster drama? Or gangster in love? Mentor vs young gangster? Usually I don't like to write a review movies which I found not worth talking but this movie had attention for a different reason. I noticed this pattern in EKTA KAPOOR movies since OUATIMD; they have given too much importance to dialogues. You can clearly see in this movie that classy cheap dialogues have been placed unnecessarily. In first OUATIMD it worked because it had simple story and good actors. This movie lacks story. Acting wise,AKSHAY KUMAR has done good job portraying role of gangster but lack of character depth makes it look funny. IMRAN KHAN has to take tips from JOHN ABRAHAM to choose roles which suit him. He just does not look like a ch awl vala ladka. SONAKSHI SINHA, WHY DO EVEN DIRECTORS BOTHER? Terrible acting, terrible character, and she does not even look pretty in terms of innocent girl kind role. Other actors are wasted due to bad writing.Music of prequel of this one was superb but this one is disappointing. Ye tune kya kia is good but not superb.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)
new by standards of Indian sports movies but falls short of a classic
BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG is a biopic based on the life of most celebrated athlete of India. It is directed by RAKEYSH OMAPRAKSH MEHRA who is looking to make a good film after failure of Delhi 6. MILKHA SINGH is played by talented and versatile FARHAN AKHTAR. In India, sports movie begin with a child seeing dream to be successful and in last scene he hits six or scores a goal but mind you, this is different. For that credit must go to wonderful editing. Movie is 3 hour long but does not look boring, even songs have been used quite brilliantly. FARHAN AKHTAR shows his acting skills and his hard work is noticeable in the movie. This may be considered exaggeration by some but I think he resembled Daniel day Lewis. Just like DDL you would think that this is MILKHA SINGH not FARHAN. This is really commendable. SONAM KAPOOR is really brilliant in the short role she got, she may not have pr of other actress so she might not get much appreciation but still she was brilliant in little role she has. Cast has done brilliant job, PAVAN MALHOTRA and YOGRAJ SINGH have given strong performance. And yes YOGRAJ SINGH is father of YUVRAJ SINGH just for info. In technical departments movie is good. Cinematography is good suitable for a period film. Music is really good. Every song is suitable for respective situations. SHANKAR EHSAAN LOY shows that they are still one of the best music director around in industry. Editing as mentioned is excellent. Talking about weak points of the movie, which stops this movie at being good and not classic. Some parts are fictional and take the seriousness out. Like the sequence of him drinking 2 kg of Desi ghee however entertaining, but does not look good. Second thing is I have good knowledge of sports and I knew history of his life. So after interval, it becomes predictable. But this may not be a problem as most in India do not know him that well. Third and biggest flaw is MILKHA SINGH never held the world record but this thing is given much importance in movie and it shows he breaks the world record. Other than these technical faults, this movie is really wonderful and must watch. Do not miss it. No wonder why athlete great Carl Lewis called him to congratulate him for a wonderful career.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
we have seen it 100 times haven't we?
YEH JAWWANI HAI DEEWANI is the second film by young director, ayaan mukherjee , best friend of Rabbi kapoor. first of all i am not fan of KARAN JOHAR brand of movies. i loved wake up Sid and that was the first movie in which Ranbir kapoor was appreciated by classes and masses together. this movie begins with Deepika who is studying in medicine, a geek girl having identity crisis who runs away to have an adventurous trip to Manila. on the trip she meets her schoolmates bunny (rk), Avie( adiytya) and aditi (kalki). bunny's character is the heart of the movie. kapoor carries the movie literally on his shoulders. deepika falls in love with Rabbi but doesn't tell him after realizing that his dreams and way of life is different and he wants to go to Chicago for journalism and travel the world. after 10 years they all meet again at wedding of aditi. life has changed and relations have also changed. story is very predictable but in romcoms stories are usually predictable but in this movie the treatment disappoint movie goer.
where it worked performance of rk is excellent. he once again gives good performance after barf, acting of aditya Roy kapoor is also good.music is already a hit and all songs are amazing. preetam has done a wonderful job. rk again impresses with his dancing, he dances with the charm of sham mi kapoor rarely seen in movies these days. where it didn't work deepika looks lovely but doesn't add the depth to the character. i mean you don't look like a geek just by wearing glasses. her dressing in the second part is terrible. too much meaningless skin show songs are great, it does not mean you put every song in movie. this adds length of movie and makes it too boring. editing could have saved the movie. so a story that has been told a thousand times is repeated. if you are a die hard fan go for it and if no (well how can anybody not like Ranbir kapoor)it is a time pass movie.
Nautanki Saala! (2013)
amazingly fresh in time of Himmatwala and remake of Chasme Buddoor
this movie directed by ROHAN SIPPY is a remake of a french film and yeah credit has been given to original film. story is about a MR NICE GUY ram par mar or RP played by Ayushman Khurana who is always helping everyone getting in all trouble after he saves someone from suicide.
lead role is played by Ayushman Khurana who looked very promising in Vicky donor. he does not disappoint here. well if you are cynic you may find similarity in both roles of Vicky donor and Nanking Sal.he is the director of super hit play ravanleela and he is also working as ravan. kunal Roy kapoor plays depressive person role who has no reason to live because his love of life played by pooja salve has left him. he is very convincing and very effortless in comic scenes. there are three ladies in this movie. Evelyn sharma does well in a short role she has. but Pooja is a disappointment because she had great scope of being a clueless girl who does not know which guy to love. she acts like she is still working for commercials. one of the surprise package is producer of the play, he is really funny. there are those small characters which add flavor to film like the Malayalam woman in hospital who requires a person to explain what she said. plot: once RP going back to his place from play finds a guy trying to suicide, he helps him and gives him shelter and literally adopts him. he feels without anything good to do he Kunaal Roy Kapoor has no purpose in life so he gives him role of ram in his play. and the comedy begins. if you are expecting comedy in David Dhavan style you may be disappointed. after sometime RP comes to know that Mandar is unhappy because his love of life has left him so he tries to get both of them back but he falls in love with Mandar's love. now he starts feeling guilty and doesn't know what to do. talking about technical things, cinematography is absolute treat. we see a different Mumbai in this movie that we don't see in other movies. scene of play are well taken. music is beautiful and well used in situation, both original song and songs from old movies work well. Ayushman Khurana sings another magical song sadi gali in this movie. fresh approach to movie distinguish movie from slapstick masala movies, a movie which should not missed for its innocent and honest effort. only thing i thought was a letdown was when RP is feeling guilty. he is playing ravan in the play but he tried to be ram in life. this thing could have been used more to show his confusion. and well yeah my prediction is this movie might get little profit in box office. and it will be a cult favorite in some years.
Kai po che! (2013)
fresh movie but little over rated
Kai Po Che! based on best seller book of Chetan Bhagat,three mistakes of my life. if you haven't read the book,see the movie. this movie is not as boring as the book. Kai Po Che is based in Ahmedabad, story of three friends in turn of the century and their dreams, ambitions, belief, friendship. trailers of this movie received great review and created attention among moviegoers. but this movie fall a little short of expectations. movie begins with a flashback,showing how three friends Omi, Govind and Ishan want to do something on their own, resembling spirit of entrepreneurship of Gujarati. this movie shows an innovative trend of fiction events around true events, previously seen in movies like forest gum. many true events covered in the movie are Gujarat earthquake, India Australia match and riot in Gujarat. cinematography is brilliant and little details present Gujarat really well. but there are many technical faults which are disappointing and at times irritating. one of them is accent of actors, use of mobile in 2001, and pol of Ahmadabad could have been more beautiful. Delhi 6 is a wonderful movie where old city is captured well. in movie Khan, kolkata is used as a character, that could have been done here as it focus on essential events of Ahmadabad. other fault that i found was lack of depth in character of Vida, why is she like that why does she behave like that is not explained and that is a bit infuriating. acting of all three actors is amazing and they have done a good job. Sushant proves that he is here for a long while. raj has done brilliant job and continues to do great work after gangs of wasseypur.music of this movie is brilliant by AMIT TRIVEDI. so in short, Kai PO Che lacks what a good movie has and conclude as an average movie. with ABHISHEK kapoor from rock on there were lot of expectations but he dishearten the movie watchers.it could have been a classy movie but end up as a one time watch friend movie.