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) -
Ranveer Singh (Bajirao Mastaani)
Ranveer Singh (Dil Dhadakne Do)
Best Actors (Female) -
Priyanka Chopra(Dil Dhadakne Do)
Priyanka Chopra (Dil Dhadakne Do)
Best Director -
Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Bajirao Mastaani)
Worst of the Quarter -
Sidharth Malhotra (Brothers)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actors: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor
Director: Kabeer Khan
If it is a Salman Movie even if it is different it is not really different. The pony can do a few things and that's what he can do. He likes to play the simpleton or the superman. In this one he is the village idiot simpleton who is going to return a kid to Pakistan. Oh how cute! He can't lie whenever the narrative suits him. The movie has almost no story but is pretty clean and if you have kids watch it with them. Not that it's a bad movie it is pretty good time pass, Nawaazuddin Siddique is in it. He is good enough. Kareena is one trick pony. She does only one thing no matter what the movie is, she will make same faces and look sideways and pout... and that's it.
Actors - Deepika, Ranveer, Priyanka.
Director - Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
There are movies and then there is THE Movie. Bajirao is in stratosphere of it's own. To garner a 5 Star from this blogger you need to pack a "Philosophical Punch" - check. Drama - Check. Out of the world Acting - Check. Director's love for his craft should show- Check. Bhansali is always good with his grandiose and painting a great painting on a huge canvas, in Bajirao he breaths life and a soul. At interval you are bowled over by the grandiose and the second half the drama completes it.
When the movie won't let go of you after you come back and you can't sleep.... either you watched a nightmare or a great movie. 7 thousand years ago Krishna liberal as you get God himself told the society they do it all wrong by sticking to their dogmas and traditions, nothing changed, then Bajirao seems to run into a similar wall.... world is great.
Acting - Ranveer Singh has established himself as the best actor in Hindi movies by a mile. But in this movie there is no Ranveer ... there is only Bajirao, his Marathi-sed - hindi diction and the way he says each and every word is awesome. He is the reason the movie achieves what it dreams of achieving. Deepika and Priyanka are perfect but it seems Bhansali made Ranveer stand out by giving him the Marathi accent which was missing for Priyanka.
This is basically a Drama - love story in the backdrop of constant war when circumstances make Bajirao torn between his love for country, wife and Mastani. Go watch it in theater.
Actors: Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Rishi Kapoor
Director: Umesh Shukla
This could have been a good movie, but ended up half baked, as if everyone lost interest in it between getting conceived and getting completed. Actors are tired and Director seems to be borrowing from others. But it is not really a bad movie, it is still pretty good movie if you like low budget sweet movies.
It is about estranged son coming back to his parents and ending up getting tangled in their lives again.
Actors: Prabhas, Anushka Shetty
Director: S. S Rajamouli
This blogger does not like fantasy or period drama. This quarter still gave us 2 great movies in these zenre, if Bajirao was a historic period drama, this one was a fantasy out of thin air. There has never been a movie out of India which is so technical and visually perfect. This is like a LOTR of India. Pretty tight script but pretty easy to understand and obvious too. It is an age old story of King who is separated from his kingdom and is going to reclaim it back with the help of small thieves and villagers. He is also a Super Hero who can jump and run and almost fly. The makers were so confident that they end with a setup for part 2! Good one go watch it.
Actors: Shashank Udapurkar, Annu Kapoor, Anupam Maanav, Saranya Mohan, Puja Gupta, Kishori Shahane
Director: Shailesh
This is not the Badlapur of the Movie Badlapur fame (near Bombay) this is some fictitious Badlapur in UP and does not make any sense why the movie is named that way. This is about a boy who wants to fulfill his father's dream of getting a river in his village. disjointed and borrowed. It feels honesty to make a film is missing.
Actors: Ajay Devgn, Shriya Saran, Tabu, Rajat Kapoor, Ishita Dutta, Kamlesh Sawant
Director: Nishikant Kamat
I have heard that the original is even better and it is a Malayalam movie. I am hoping the Malayalam was not a copy of some French movie. The script is taut and execution is perfect. It has a look and feel of a thriller and suspense and does not deviate from it. Typical to any good thriller suspense you can go back and check the scenes that make sense later but won't make sense when you are watching the first time. This movie is about a lower middle class family who are trying to save themselves from a precarious condition they find themselves in. They are in the wrong and cops are tightening the noose around them. Ajay Devgan does a good job and Tabu as usual is awesome in a difficult role. Very well done. Watch it.
Actors: Ritesh Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat, Jacqueline Fernandez, Chandan Roy Sanyal, AkashPandey, Aarya Babbar
Director: Karan Anshuman
The heart is in the right place, and the movie is ok. You can tell that the movie maker made the movie with the message being central to the movie. Hindu is changed to Muslim and vice versa and both have no idea about their own religion but are ready to do some damage. It has some laughs but when you already know what is going to happen and it is all predictable it is takes off the sheen. Also comedy is not understated but a little over the top which this blogger does not like.
Brothers - 1.0 Stars
Actors - Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra, Jackie Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandes.
Director - Karan Malhotra
A movie about street fighting - that's all the movie maker thought before they started on it. For no reason really the 2 brothers are fighting. For some reason street fighting is now become like IPL in India. The dad (Jackie Shroff) was a fighter too and he has a dark past due to which the Brothers hate him. The movie tried to grip you with many different angles thrown in, but somehow it all is just a half hearted buildup for second half where the movie completely changes to so called street fights. I was tired watching Akshay and Sidharth in there boxing shorts doing weird stuff. Jacqueline Fernandes is fast wanting to grab the greatest non-actor tag from Katrina. Skip it.
Phantom - 2.0 Stars.
Actors: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, June Smith, Joelle Koissi, John W.G. Harley, Rajesh Tailang, Paul Lazenby
Director: Kabir Khan
There was a time when Aamir Khan was called chocolate Hero he worked hard to et rid of that image. I think Saif also has trauma of his earlier days of being branded about his feminine looks and soft characters. He keeps on coming in these action thrillers where he is the greatest spy ever born, a ajmes bond ka baap and everytime he does that it just doesn't work. Instead he is pretty good at playing a wayward lover who doesn't understand love till the last scene a La Ranbir Kapoor. Again it is not a bad movie, but these movies are coming too fast and too many. India is out avenge the Bombay attacks and a covert operation will kill the criminals. Obviously things go wrong and then one man army (not Stallone but Saif) will save the day. There is Katrina too... who is believe it or not a spy and an agent or both .. I didn't get it. Because no matter who she plays it's all the same, oh am so pretty that I can't talk and bother about acting.
This blogger hates the rich people problem films but still this film was just an exception. Or maybe I am changing. It was well done, it is feel good drama nothing over the top or out of place. Rich people go on a cruise and all the drama in their family unfolds. Big sister (Piggy chops) is in unhappy relation, Parents (Anil Kapoor and Shefali) are also living a fake life. Then there is Mr Ranveer Singh, right now he can do anything, he is on a high. this did not seem to be a role for him but he takes to it like fish to water. He is cute funny and supportive and everything he does he does perfectly.
Priyanka chopra who lately had nothing to do in hindi movies suddenly shows why she is the best, Dear Priyanka - stop acting in those crappy American shows where you over act and don't do justice to you talents... please!. The movie itself is a breeze and will be over in no time and you will take nothing away from it either. it is like a good feel good timepass.
Actors: Annu Kapoor, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Rahul Bagga, Ravi Kissen, Sanjay Mishra, Kamlesh Gill, Bhupesh Pandya, Om Puri
Director: Vinod Kapri
One thing is for sure, you will never watch such a movie in your lifetime. This is definitely a once in a lifetime thing. It seems it is lifted from real incidences that happen in rural India. The village chief marries a girl 20 years younger and then goes after the lover of that girl. In the end he gets him accused of raping a buffalo and the case goes to court. it is hilarious at times and disgusting at times. I will like to describe some scenes but it's better you watch what's disgusting and what's hilarious and sometimes both.
Movie Reviews for Kids as dictated by Savi (9 Yr Old) -
This movie is about 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Younger brother and younger sister get together and older brother and older sister get together. Older couple (Kajol and Shah Rukh) get in a fight and the younger couple try to put them together.
I liked about movie is that there was a lot of emotion and the emotion connected to the action. I liked most of the people's acting, their clothes were covered all the way and there was no fake muscles being shown by the men. I liked Veer's (Varun Dhawan) comedy. What I disliked was when they were driving cars and shooting there was too much action and blood. Also I disliked was that Kaali (SRK) and Meera's (Kajol) love story was too intense.
The movie is about a family that is separated and Salman Khan has double role. One of the Salman has to pretend to be other Salman to save his (King's) life. There is lot of colorful and fun songs. Salman who is poor and trying to play King Salman was goofing around at the palace. It was more of a timepass movie than an intense movie.
I liked was it was not too intense and easy to understand.
