2012 - Third Quarter Reviews (July - Sept)

1. Vicky Donor – 3.5 Star. 

• I know some of you loved it and think it is too low. But the movie had a great script and some really funny scenes (check out the grandma drinking with the bahu scene) but after a while the movie just doesn’t move after introducing the great concept. So it is definitely a good movie but see with lowered expectations. 

2. Jannat 2 – 5 Star. 

• ALERT – this is the kind of movie which I love for my own reasons. Probably for you it may be a 4 star, but make no mistake it is a good movie. I love how they have developed the concept of Jannat, it is not the same story as Jannat1 but the ‘soul’ is the same. It just means that a bad guy wants to be good because he wants his jannat (love). The chemistry between Randeep Hooda and Emran Hashmi is perfect, probably long time after Bachchan movies did someone do so stylish ‘heartbroken cop’ as Hooda. The ending is aahh.. perfect. 

3. Anjuna Beach – 0 star. 

• This seemed like shot in 1970s and then someone found this reel and released it. Though it seems to be a mystery but we didn’t have it in us to go beyond first 15 minutes. 

4. Department – 3.0 Star. 

• First 45 mins into the movie and I thought I am not even going to watch it anymore. But after that surprisingly the plot thickens and it becomes decent. The problem is ‘bad acting’ overall and bad presentation. Camera moving like crazy maybe a style patented by Ram Gopal Varma but he should stop doing it. It was so annoying I wanted to slap the camera man. 

5. Char din ki chandni – 1.5 Star. 

• Another DDLJ try. Pretty bad. Everybody is pretending to be funny but they know it’s not funny. There is anita raaj in the movie in case any old fans are reading this.

6. Ishaqzaade – 4.0 Star. 

• We loved the treatment of this movie. Sapna and I like the female lead (pareeniti – piggy chops sis). It has pretty decent twist at the interval, and then movie does give you couple of more twists which is rare for a love story. Generally love stories are predictable and bad but this one was good.

7. Tezz – 1.0 Star. 

• Anil Kapoor and Ajay devgan facing off ….. in a Hollywood style thriller. The problem? MANY – why everyone in England is pseaking hindi (regular white people too). Why are they being lectured in hindi? Why are Indian cops telling them what to do in the hour of their national crisis? Why is Devgan mad in the first place? Uh… Has anyone seen ‘post slumdog – Anil Kapoor’? He is horrible and his accent is from nowhere. Anyway… if you want to just get tickled watch it for a while for all the above.

8. Housefull 2 – 3.0 Stars. 

• Sapna went to the theater to watch this one. So I didn’t watch it, but she says it is much better than the first version and though it was stupid she liked the story.

9. Shanghai – 3.5 Stars. 

• The movie starts slow but picks up to a pretty healthy pace. It’s a thriller which surprises you in the end as you think - how bad it started and how well it ended. Good different script. Real Indian feels to the movie which I always like. The only negative is we both can’t tolerate that girl Kalki. 

10. Rowdy Rathore – 2.5 Stars. 

• What do you expect of a south Indian movie? Yes all that is in there. A ‘Wanted’ re-run. 

11. 3 Bachelors – 1.0 Star. 

• Guy becoming a girl and no one noticing. This is the kind of comedy which are bollywood staple, probably even kids don’t laugh at this stuff. 

12. Gangs of Wasseypur – 3.0 Stars. 

• Sorry guys, I know it has been critically acclaimed and loved by some of my friends. It just didn’t connect. It is pretty authentic Indian stuff (which I like) but I still couldn’t get the point. The story telling was week. Documentary needs to entertain too. It keeps on going and going… aimlessly probably trying to be true to the incidents but what’s the point? Don’t get me wrong a good movie but went in with too high level of expectations.

13. Ferrari ki sawaari – 3.5 Stars. 

• Typical feel good small movie. The doting father wants to give his kid a ‘cricketing life’ and wants to borrow Sachin’s Ferrari. It just goes the beaten track of such films never rises from that but never sucks bad either. 

14. Isi Life mein – 2.0 Star. 

• Rajshri nth attempt to make a Maine Pyar Kiya (with DDLJ thrown in between). To be fair to Rajshri they have never budged from Nadiya ke paar / Maine pyaar Kiya theme. Small town girl with ‘values’ etc etc…. 

15. 3 Night 4 days – 0 Star. 

• Trying to cash in on ‘life in a metro’ kind of zenre. Where you discuss for the entire film relationship problems. But then you better understand what you are doing. The stars explain where this movie went. 

16. Teri Meri Kahaani – 5 Star. 

• Sheer Poetry. Again ALERT – this movie gets brownie points because when a romantic movie hits at heart to both me and Sapna …. It is magic. We get moist eyes and we kind of renew our vows. AND this movie did it. Oh.. romance… all 3 stories.. has clichés of the eras they depict but ohh.. it has romance. Love stories… which make you cry and laugh at the same time. And in the end the director as if listened to Sapna and changed everything! Piggy chops as usual get into the character, the cute punjaban accent of pre-independence era, the stylish Khan guy – shahid kapoor in the last story very impressive. Also look closer all 3 story characters have similar ‘nature’ the lovers have the nature just the times change. Also in the 60s era depiction … what catchy music and telling the entire story in the cute 60s style of music. You get the point … for some reason we loved it. 

17. Ek tha Tiger – 4.0 Star. 

• Sapna watched in in theater so I didn’t watch it. Sapna said she was surprised to see Salman not acting cheap and the movie in fact having a story! She liked it more than any other Sallu movie for last 2 years, not much of a baseline but still pretty good. She also liked the portrayal of Katrina.

18. Barfi – 3.5 Star. 

• Again Sapna went to theater (hmm… she has been going to a lot lately) so I don’t watch it. She liked it, illeana is beautiful obviously… and Ranbir Kapoor is good at any challenge thrown at him. So a pretty good movie very different than a normal one. Savi sat through the movie and understood it. Very big step for Savi :)