Q3 - Awesome Year Continues and a Review from Savi

2015 Top Performers -

Rules - scores will be posted with the reviews how many marks did each actor and director earn. These will keep getting added over the year and one will be crowned the "Actor / Director / Music Director of 2015".

Best Actors (Male) -

1. Amitabh Bachchan (Piku)
2. Ronit Roy (Guddu Rangeela)
3. Sushant Singh Rajput (Detective Byomkesh Bakshi)
4. Ranbir Kapoor (Bombay Velvet) 

Best Actors (Female) -

1. Kangana Ranaut (Tanu Weds Manu2)
2. Deepika Padukone (Piku)
 

Best Director -

1. Dibakar Banerjee (Detective Byomkesh Bakshi)
2. Shoojit Sircar (Piku)
3. Anurag Kashyap (Bombay Velvet)

Worst of the Quarter -

1. Sunny Deol (I Love NY)
2. Naseeruddin Shah (Dharam Sanket Mein)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Detective Byomkesh Bakshi - 4.5 Stars.

Actors: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

The movie takes you back in 1940s Bengal. It is very difficult to do a period movie and make it work at least in hindi films. This one makes it look easy, very well done, beautifully set. Detective Byomkesh is our own Sherlock Holmes the story drags in the start and then gets confusing and completely chaotic before making sense of everything. A typical whodunit movie. Perfectly done. No sly tricks by the director at the end but just a very taunt script done well. Sushant Singh Rajput does an awesome job and fits the role perfectly. Other support roles are very well done. the story is about a detective whose casual interest in a young man's father's disappearance turns ugly and way serious than anyone expected.

• Piku - 4.0 Stars.

Actors: Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan

Director: Shoojit Sircar

The movie self confesses to be heavy on toilet references. The entire movie does not have a single scene that does not talk about gastric problems! it is understandable that some people got "nauseated" because of it. But the movie on the surface is talking toilet but has a beautiful soul. The Daughter Father relation is cute, between Bachchan and Deepika. The movie is more from the eyes of the daughter and hence some people may think it makes mockery of an old man. But if you can rise above this, it is a beautiful movie about love for parents. Old people become kids and kids become parents as life goes on. Deepika frets about how the old man has no responsibility because he leaves whenever he likes!! typical of all kids who think there parents after a certain age should tell them everything about where they are going! (like kids). Old people think they still can do everything on their own when clearly that is not the case! they are stuck on one or two major things which they obsess about. All these may be clichés but somehow it all works for this movie.

• Tanu weds Manu Returns - 4.0 Stars.

Actors: Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut

Director: Anand L. Rai

The movie starts off at a hilarious note! They are married now and they have issues and it is hilarious. The first 30 minutes of the movie is a laugh riot. Look for the first scene when Tanu and Manu fight at the asylum. Then later when Manu's Dad tells him why he should stay married and just somehow find a way. It is hilarious. the movie can't keep the hilarity all through and becomes a little of a drag in the second half with some subplots that stretch too far. but over all it's a good timepass movie. Manu's friend is as awesome as in the first movie, this guy is a crack up anytime he opens his mouth. Obviously the star of the movie is Kangana, she can do anything if given the space to do it. She has double role which may be a spoiler because for sometime I could not make out that the second girl in the movie is kangana herself. Her dialect and transformation is unbelievable. She is like a Batsman in purple patch, she just can't do anything wrong right now in her career.

• Rahasya - 3.5 Stars

Actors: Kay Kay Menon, Tisca Chopra, Aashish Vidyarthi, Mita Vasisht, Ashwini Kalsekar, Nimai Bali

Director: Manish Gupta

The movie is based on Aarushi Murder case with some twists. It is almost same story ine for most of the film. Lifting a real life story as inspiration is different to almost make the story exactly as the real life case is another. The movie does have grip but something is lacking. If you don't know much about the real life case I think you enjoy the movie more. It is pretty good whuddunit thriller with lot of twists. This is the era of thrillers and suspense movies and Bollywood is doing pretty good job at it. Kay Kay Menon plays the CBI officer who needs to crack the case of whether parents killed their own daughter or not. I have high expectation of him and that's why he disappoints, he plays a typical detective but does not give his own flare to the role. Anyway the movie is a good watch.

• Hunterrr - 3.5 Stars

Actors: Gulshan Devaiya, Radhika Apte, Sai Tamhankar, Sagar Deshmukh

Director: Harshavardhan Kulkarni

This is all Marathi movie, it seems everyone in the movie is Marathi. It has a pretty heavy Marathi influence and it works pretty well. I did not expect this movie to be anything but 0 stars but it surprised me! The guy is a player and all he wants to do is play the field and not get married. He is commitment phobic in fact he loves to use anyone and everyone. Then things change, he starts getting old and the field starts drying his friends are married. With middle age new challenges come and so does new love. If you like low budget and can take some shoddy productions value this is a pretty good one to watch.

• Dharam Sankat Mein - 1 Star.

Actors: Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, ANNU KAPOOR, Murli Sharma

Director: Fuwad Khan

This idiotic movie plays on the recent trend of anti-religion movies like OMG and PK. This one doesn't add anything but continues on the same godman is a cheat and already used clichés about religion. Paresh Rawal and Naseer act like cartoons, which makes you wonder if the product is substandard can seasoned actors not act substandard? Please no more Anti-Religion movie if you have nothing new and original to present.

• ABCD2 - 5.0 (REVIEW BY SAVI BANSORE)

Actors: Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Lauren Gottlieb, Raghav Juyal, Dharmesh Yelande

Director: Remo D'Souza

The Movie is about Dance and how winning isn't everything. Perseverance and how fair-play is important too and Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) and Dance for fun! I liked the awesome Dance moves in the Movie! I liked how they showed that you should always play fair.

The Story starts out with this Indian Dance group and they are in a competition against a different country and the judges say they copied the other team and that they were eliminated. They all had jobs and when they did there jobs everybody called them cheaters! People quit the group and they find this awesome dancer (Prabhu Deva) and begs him to choreograph them. They go for a championship and they learn Dance from him.

I think Varun Dhawan had OK acting and Dharmesh Yelande did awesome dancing and awesome acting and was super nice in the movie. Shraddha Kapoor was pretty and she did great hiphop dancing for a actress that you haven't seen Dance that much and she was very responsible in the movie against irresponsible boys on her dance team. Lauren spoke really good hindi for an American and did great dancing too. Prabhu Deva did awesome dancing and he did good acting for the character he played. My favorite character were Dharmesh, Varun and Shraddha Kapoor. I watched the most exceptional dancing I have ever seen and if you are looking for good dancing then go watch this movie!

• Hamari Adhuri Kahaani - 3.75 Stars.

Bombay Velvet

Actors: Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Raj Kumar Yadav, Madhurima Tuli

Director: Mohit Suri

The most reliable star in Hindi films delivers again. Emraan Hashmi never has a bad movie it seems. This one starts slow and directionless and you wonder this one is going to fall flat. But slowly the movie picks up and ends up on a great note. Now this is not your typical Hindi movie so you have to give it some time and patience, it has a very different story, it is kind of in the same genre in treatment of the movie as "Badlapur". As always Emraan falls in love, but this time with a married woman. She has a lot of baggage and her past comes to haunt her when everything looks rosy. Watch it.

• Bombay Velvet - 3.75 Star.

 Actors: Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Karan Johar, Siddhartha Basu

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Anurag Kashyap is one of the favorite director of this blogger and this was probably the movie a little bit out of his comfort zone as it involved big stars. Anyway he did not disappoint it was a pretty good movie. The movie is set in 60s and the entire movie is shot beautifully making that era look and feel dreamy and jazzy. The entire soundtrack and songs are Jazz music. This itself lifts the movie above a lot of other movies made, they have took pains to create this era of jazz from firs to the last screen. The master stroke is to cast Ranbir Kapoor in the movie, because all we know about that era is his own family. So he is an instant fit, you can see he is completely invested in the movie just like he was in "Rockstar".

It is about life and times of a road side thug who becomes the most important criminal in the 60s and the movie tracks his rise and fall. Don't have pre-conceived notion sit back relax it's a different era and enjoy the ride.

• Guddu Rangeela - 4.0 Stars

Actors: Arshad Warsi, Amit Sadh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Ronit Roy, Dibyendu Bhattacarjee, Amit Sial, Brijendra Kala, Rajiv Gupta

Director: Subhash Kapoor

Another bankable star is Arshad Warsi, you are guaranteed a good time with this dude in a movie. I don't know why moviemakers misguide the audience with the posters and movie name that don't gel with the movie content! Arshad Warsi has a reputation of being comic actor, that does not mean you name the movie and advertise it like a comedy when it is not!

Anyway movie is a typical Bollywood potboiler with a real and awesome 100% villain in Ronit Roy. If you did not yet, you will hate the Chhap panchayat culture of some states in India. Ronit Roy does a great job of making sure you do. It is a little bit like sholay with 2 friends small time crooks out to get a big time villain. Arshad is good as usual but Amit Sadh needs to make his sadak chhap role more believable. This blogger has high standards when you try play a small time crook, then you can't show that you are stylish city kid. It is a pretty gripping good movie, go watch it.

• I Love NY - 0 Stars.

Actors: Sunny Deol, Kangna Ranaut, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Navin, Prem Chopra, Virag Mishra, Manoj Joshi, Reema Lagoo

Director: Radhika Rao, Vinay Sapru

The movie must be in the cans for years and now that Kangna is a big star they released it. Pretty bad for Sunny papaji who is horrible in this. This is a low budget cute love story, generally reserved for Rahul Bose, what are you doing in it Sunny??? AND you are really old to play that! you were not good at this anyway! Well.. I did not complete the movie ... I refuse to. Just because I am a reviewer does not mean I can sit through anything.

 

Q2 - End of Drought! 5 stars are back after a year!

2015 Top Performers -

Rules - scores will be posted with the reviews how many marks did each actor and director earn. These will keep getting added over the year and one will be crowned the "Actor / Director / Music Director of 2015".

Best Actors (Male) -

1. Nawazudin Sddiqui (Badlapur)
2. Ronit Roy (Ugly)
3. Akshay Kumar (Baby / Gabbar)
 

Best Actors (Female) -

1. Huma Qureshi (Badlapur)
 

Best Director -

1. Anurag Kashyap (Ugly), Sriram Raghavan (Badlapur)


2. Raj Kumar Hirani (PK), Neeraj Pandey (Baby)

Worst of the Quarter -

1. Om Puri
2. KC Bokadia.
 

• Ugly - 5 Stars.

Actors -  Siddhant Kapoor (+2), Tejaswini Kolhapure, Ronit Roy(+2), Pallavi Sharda, Vineet Kumar Singh

Director - Anurag Kashyap (+5)

Genre - Real / Thriller.

What a movie! You wanna get real and ugly! there you go, take this. Beautifully done ugly. Anurag Kashyap is a guy who can't do run of the mill to save his life. He just can't and thank god he can't. A regular guy's daughter goes missing and the thriller starts! Is she kidnapped? where is she? who took her? is it an insider job? Movie does a research in human psyche and how every human is dirty and ugly deep down. If you can't admit that you are also one and all of the characters somewhere inside you, you are faking it. Keep it up Mr Kashyap. Ronit Roy is scary bad and good, this actor knows his craft and so do others like Sidhant and Vineet. Ugly is beautiful.

• Roy - 2 Stars.

Actors - Arjun Rampal, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ranbir Kapoor
Director - Vikramjit Singh

Genre - Thriller / Romance

Ranbir Kapoor as second fiddle won't work in a movie. He is too big to be that. The movie is offbeat and working in 2 parallel universes. Director was aiming for the stars but did not get the stars right in casting. Though you sympathize with the director on his subject but any movie about an author and his struggles always ends up being boring. Only the authors are interested in their lives but really they are not that interesting.

• Shamitabh - 3.5 Stars

Actors - Dhanush, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshara Haasan
Director - Balki

Genre - Novel Concept.

Balki always comes up with a very novel concept and this is as novel as it gets. Very well thought, an entertainer needs a face and a voice. what if the voice and face don't see face to face! the problem is the movie never goes anywhere after establishing the concept and when it does in the end, it is a tad bit too late. Dhanush and Amitabh the 2 powerhouses are ok doing what is needed but something was amiss.

• PK - 4.0 Stars

Actors - Aamir Khan (+1), Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Dutt
Director - Rajkumar Hirani (+2)

Genre - Drama

Everyone has seen this 'most successful movie ever'. I generally have low expectations of a popular movie, but the greatness of Aamir is he regularly comes up with movies which are not your regular fair but still entertains the masses. This movie was loved by all it seems, the movie does a great balancing act between lot of things. It doesn't hurt you but still proves it's point. Rajkumar Hirani movies tend to be didactic and it is expected. This one is done the best way possible. Religious leaders are on their way out if popularity of this movie is to be believed!

• Baby - 4.5 Stars

Actors -  Akshay Kumar (+1), Danny Denzongpa, Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon (+2)
Director - Neeraj Pandey (+2)

Genre - Thriller

Now a days these 'Indian commandos given a dangerous project and they pull it off' kind of movies have become common place. They also are of vey high standard. Neeraj Pandey knows his 'thrillers'. this movie is so taut and well made it rivals many Hollywood thrillers! Kay Kay Menon is just awesome actor and Akshay Kumar is to thrillers like Govinda used to be to cheap comedies.

• Dirty Politics - 2 star

Actors - Naseeruddin Shah, Mallika Sherawat, Jackie Shroff, Ashutosh Rana
Director - K. C Bokadia
Genre - Drama

YESS... KC Bokadia!! Yess.... he is the director! I am guessing the movie was being made for at least 15 years or sitting somewhere in someone's closet. Mallika Sherawat is small time dancer who gets involved with politicians and then disappears! what happened and who did it. Politics around that is the theme of the movie. BUT the shocking part is Om Puri making out for one entire song in all sorts of dirty pose with mallika! it is disgustingly hilarious! it also is the crux of the movie. I don't know what Om Puri was thinking! or was he?

• Hawaizadaa - 1 Star

Actors - Ayushmann Khurrana, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Sharda
Director - Vibhu Puri

Genre - Historic

I think this movie broke all records for how many sittings it took to finish this one off. It never engaged us. we knew the plot but normally ok Ayushman and Mithun just did not transport you into another era. It all looked like a cheap drama on stage. It is about the person who designed and flew the first aircraft but was never credited with it because he was Indian under British.

• Badlapur - 5 Stars

Actors - Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui (+2), Huma Qureshi (+2), Yami Gautam
Director - Sriram Raghavan (+5)

Genre - Drama

Badla is probably the single most important theme for hindi movies. Revenge based movies are staple diet for Indians since 1960s. Revenge for Dad's killing probably made many careers. This movie is about revenge BUT it completely and totally flips the entire concept on it's head! Philosophically Sriram Raghavan has taken a leap like no other. He has created poetry. I don't have enough superlatives for Nawazuddin Siddiqui, this was HIS role. Huma is as always out of this world. Varun Dhawan has been given some crutches to stand on his own with these great performers. The dialogues are at a very high level. If you did not like it, come a discuss with me. Revenge has no where to go after this movie. It has been dismantled and put to rest by Mr Sriram Raghavan.

 

• Gabbar is Back - 3.0 Stars

Actors - Akshay Kumar, Sruti Hassan

Director - A. R Murugadoss

Genre - Action / thriller

Akshay has found his mojo to make stupid movies look better than they are. This is throw back 80s movie. A lone Hero fighting against the system. Nothing special but not boring either.

 

Q1-2015 - Fresh Start and a New Beginning

2015 Top Performers -

Rules - scores will be posted with the reviews how many marks did each actor and director earn. These will keep getting added over the year and one will be crowned the "Actor / Director / Music Director of 2015".

Best Actors (Male) -

1. Ranveer Singh (Kill Dill)
2. Shahid Kapoor (Haider)

Best Actors (Female) -

1. Parineeti
2. Illeana

Best Director -

1. Vishal Bhardwaj.
2. Shaad Ali
3. Charudut Acharya

Worst of the Quarter -

1. Farah Khan
2. Ajay Devgan
3. ShahRukh Khan
4. Deepika

Fun Video from archives -

Khakee one of the favorites of this blogger. This scene is definition of "Drama". You can see all emotions on Bachchan's face from will to fight, to loser, to dejection, to pain. 2 people became actors in this scene - Tushar and Akshay and then there is Ansari! it is just beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHB2oVCNu1A

 

Top 10 Movies of 2014

A pretty ordinary year for Hindi Movies. Generally it is a struggle to put top 10 together... and this time it was a struggle too... to find top 10. There were only 8 movies which received 4 star rating! and only 1 each with a 5 and 4.5 Star!!. Clearly one of the worst year since this blog started few years back.

1. Shahid - Genre - Drama - Only 5 Star of the year.                                                                          
2. Mardaani - Genre - Thriller / suspense  -    4.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Forgot to review it in Q4. Sorry for a rare miss. This is Rani Mukherjee at her best. Yes Rani is THE Hero a bad ass cop. Yes.. even I thought that is not possible but she proves you wrong. Taut script, cute villain and bad ass Rani. All somehow mixes into a nice thriller. Only negative is it is also a little too real, and disturbs you with it's subject of human trafficking. But a definite 'not to be missed'.                                                                                                                 
3. Lunch Box - Genre - Drama.                                                                                                            
4. RamLeela - genre - Voilent Love Story (Whacky) - Romeo Juliet Adaptation.                                                                                                                                                                     Only reason this is number 4 is because it is technically a 2013 movie.                                           
5. Raja Natwarlal - Genre - Thriller.                                                                                                                                                                                              
6. Holiday - Genre - Thriller / Suspense                                                                                               
7. Hasee to Phasee - Genre - Comedy / Drama.                                                                                  
8. Revolver Rani - Genre - Thriller (Whacky)                                                                                            
9. Bobby Jasoos - Genre - Thriller / Drama                                                                                          
10. Ek Villian - Genre - Love Story / Drama                                                                                         
11. Other notable mentions - Hate Story 2 / Khoobsurat / Dekh Tamasha Dekh / Dedh Ishqiya - Hate Story if you want to watch a revenge drama and Khoobsurat if you want to watch a love story. Dekh Tamasha Dekh for Black Comedy and Dedh Ishqiya for drama / thriller.

Q4 - Mediocre Year comes to an End with a Mediocre Quarter.

1. Hamshakals - 0 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           One of the worst movies of the year. Hindi films still don't have any social awareness of time they are making films in. They have taken a concept of 'mental asylum' patients which 80s movies would have a 15-20 minute comedy track and made it into an entire movie! in 2014!. You still can make fun of disable people and think it should work? It is gross and stupid. Saif and Ritesh become dogs when they take a drug. Yes they actually act like dogs.. sniff sniff.. woof woof... yes it is a movie not a college skit (those are way better). The bro-sis directors Sajid and Farah Khan never boasted of being smart... but now they are proving my other blog right.... success has no merit.                                                                                                           
2. Entertainment - 3.5 Stars                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Another Dog movie, but in this their is an actual Dog who is soo much better than Saif and Ritesh. Akshay goes to make a quick buck but gets involved with the Dog who has ended up being owner of millions. Throw back cute movie mothing bad in it. Don't look for too much substance and nice movie to watch while you relax. The side kick has a few good lines as he talks only in movie lingo. Watch it.                                                                                                  
3. Singham Returns - 1 Star.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     As talked earlier - leave the south action hero movies to south. They have the culture of making same thing again and again and loving it. Don't do it in Hindi. Supposedly the SOuth superstar is awesome in being Singham. SO just watch that in case you are interested. Ajay does not fit the role of a marathi cop mouthing marathi lines, when he is clearly uncomfortable saying those lines. Obviously by design movie has no sense expect for trying to make more money by making a sequel to a popular first, which did not go well with this blogger anyway.                        
4. Mary Kom - 3.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                A little disjointed movie. This blogger does not like biographies, and typical to others this one also just tells a story one way. Life and times of Mary Kom a successful Indian boxer, her romance, her struggles, her fights, her fight with the administration. It runs fine, in parts Priyanka Chopra does show a few sparks of brilliance which defined her over the years but clearly she is not yet completely back with a Piggy performance to remember.                             
5. Kick - 2.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                It is a Salman Movie.                                                                                                                      
6. Bang Bang - 3.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Did not see this one, but by all accounts consensus is pretty decent thriller. Hindi movie having cool stunts like hollywood, improbably plot which is always a plus for a masala thriller. Popularly the best looking couple hindi films has to offer. (Hrithik and Dhoom3 girl).                 
7. Fugly - 3.0 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Disjointed movie, you feel it could have been a good movie. The plot starts talking about Fugly Indian culture of no respect for women but then quickly becomes a thriller before it turns into a politics / law enforcement nexus turning into throwback all powerful villian against our team of kids. Talking of Villian it is our own Jimmy Shergill, one of the Bansore house favorites.           
8. Raja Natwarlal - 4.0 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         If it is a Emraan Hashmi film it cannot be bad, and this rule stays intact. One of the most bankable stars, always gives you a good one. He kind of has type cast being the regular guy stuck in bad circumstances and getting out of it in style. This movie has some good lines from Hashmi, a simple uncomplicated thriller which is a little over the top in it's plot. But if you ignore some outrageous premise it is pretty fun to follow. A great twist in the end all in all a nice good desi thriller. One thing of notice is end of Mr Paresh Rawal, this guy looks tired and worn out and has lost all interest in acting it seems. He pulled the entire movie down by a notch, some other yesteryear star in the same role would have done wonders. Plot is simple Hashmi wants to revenge a underworld don by robbing him of all his money!                              
9. Daawat-e-Ishq - 3.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Did not see this one but may watch it because of Parineeti. Sapna was ok with the movie, it was advertised as a movie for the foodies and turns out to be social . women empowerment movie. Bad start is half the battle lost.  Well I updated this review as I saw this one (after criticism from fans). It is a cute love story and if you are not looking for too much this works. It has some annoying plot and half baked moments which should have been anchors to the movie.                                                                                                        
10. Khoobsurat - 3.5 Stars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It is Sonam Kapoor as Rekha in the remake of original classic. If you have seen the original you will spend your time hating this one. In isolation this is not a great movie either. Goes on predictably with no imagination of giving the new one some kind of a different twist. Sonam like many actors thinks to show a happy character you gotta smile and laugh excessively and act like buffoon with loud clothing.  Well ... after completing the movie, I thought I was harsh on this one. In fact if you avoid Sonam's antics this movie has some hilarious moments with Kirron Kher as Punjaban Mom. She is hilarious and perfect foil to Dina Pathak, the 2 veterans make this a good watch. Stay on till the second half and the movie turns out to be way better.