POPULAR BOLLYWOOD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luka Chuppi - 4.0 Stars. (Comedy) G.
संस्कृति एक मज़ाक
Director - Laxman Utekar
Actors - Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Aparshakti Khurana
Luka Chuppi Trailer
This movie comes from the genre that has been popular for sometime. It checks all the boxes that make this "middle class north indian family drama/comedy" genre needs. Kriti Sanon has excelled in this genre with Bareilly Ki Barfi, she glides through her role of a girl who is confident and knows what she wants but she has to live with middle class conservative family shell, that never fits. Kartik Aryan is perfect playing clumsy worried unsure guy who is stuck in the entire situation and has no clue how to get out of it. Obviously like all other movies of this genre the actual hero is the family characters and Pankaj Tripathi is the Mega Star of that.
I did not mind over the top treatment they gave to this movie. It was comically silly and comically almost skit-ish overacting, it was consistently done and it all worked. It is refreshing to see that in the BJP India we still have a movie that smacks the 'sanskar', 'traditions' and 'great heritage' right on it's face, probably it gets away with it because it's done in a comical way. It brings out the farce of society and everything society lives and dies by. Good Job.
I did not mind over the top treatment they gave to this movie. It was comically silly and comically almost skit-ish overacting, it was consistently done and it all worked. It is refreshing to see that in the BJP India we still have a movie that smacks the 'sanskar', 'traditions' and 'great heritage' right on it's face, probably it gets away with it because it's done in a comical way. It brings out the farce of society and everything society lives and dies by. Good Job.
Director - Robbie Grewal
Actors - John Abraham, Jackie Shroff, Mouni Roy
Romeo Akbar Walter - Trailer
Another spy movie, another movie about beating Pakistan. Yeah ... the new India can't get enough of it. If you are the Bhakt kind no matter what they show you are going to enjoy it, so go for it. The treatment of the movie is done very well, it does give a serious taut thriller vibe. But it also plays to the gallery by being ridiculous at times, the names themselves are ridiculously forced to make it - RAW. The movie goes on a predictably boring path of a spy movie. I have realized I have no emotions for a spy. I always feel bad for the entire community that is being robed by a spy. It is similar in that sense to Alia Bhatt's movie. The end is a little different and that made me bump the scale up a bit.
Ek Ladki ko Dekha to Aisa laga - 2.0 Stars. (Drama) G.
कुछ नहीं लगा
Director -Shelly Chopra Dhar
Actors -Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha to Aisa Laga - Trailer
The movie tries to fit lot of things in one. A social Drama, Love story, comedy and address inequality in society etc. But somehow it feels more like a long dragged social statement which we already have seen many times in TV series and movies before. India passed some laws recently and hence these spate of movies trying to create social awareness. I think the movie looks exactly that - a social awareness pitch and entertainment takes a back seat. You go through the motions and we know what it is about and what it is trying to say.
Notebook - 3.5 Stars. Romance (G)
तोड़ मोड़ के जोड़
Director - Nitin Kakkar
Actors -Zaheer Iqbal, Pranutan Bahl, Mir Mohammed Mehroos
Set in beautiful small village of Kashmir and No it is not about terrorism! How refreshing! It is out and out Love story. I am little old to review a romance, but I think connecting through a Notebook in this era was a little over the top. But then it is a movie you gotta take what they give you. If you get over the entire premise that there is this school where the teacher reads other's diary one page a time every few weeks (Yes, he reads one line and then movie goes for another 15 mins, then he reads another line) then we can actually like the movie.
The lead pair is somebody's somebody (Salman's and Nutan's somebody). I liked them, I think the girl was cute both had some challenges in acting but that is expected. The guy looked a lot like Hritik Roshan and even dances like him in Bhumro song. In the end I have to give it - that it was not your run of the mill, it had some different things and a good try at it.
Junglee - 1.0 Stars. (Action / Drama) G.
पोस्टर जितनी फिलम
Director - Chuck Russell
Actors -Vidyut Jammwal, Asha Bhat, Vishwanath Chatterjee
You see the poster and you know the entire movie. That's what this movie is about. Vidyut is the action hero so it fits him to talk to animals and save them from bad guys. But there needs to be more to the story. The movie came and went and I am like ... ok. Also the fights are not that impressive and there has to be high level dialogue-baazi before and after fights to get you in the mood. But this was a bland affair.
Kesari - 0 Stars. (Action) PG.
इतिहास के नाम पे कुछ भी
Director -Anurag Singh
Actors - Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra, Suvinder Vicky
In this New great jingoistic bhakt India people are scrapping for anything to make up a story and pass it as history, because they know in name of patriotism you can show anything and reverent audience will lap it up. What an apology of a movie, few soldiers hold fort for British army, yes they are British soldiers holding forts against Muslim invaders. Well.. I guess there is the catch, at least they are Muslim invaders who cares if Indian soldiers are working for Brits? They painstakingly explain how they are somehow fighting for something more than sucking up to British but it all is too made up. I am done.
Why Cheat India - 3.5 Stars. (Thriller) PG.
नक़ल करना हमारी संस्कृति है
Director -Soumik Sen
Actors - Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Snighdadeep Chatterji
Nakal mein hi akal hai.... Long time readers of this blog know this Blogger loves Emraan Hashmi. The guy is back with a good one, he is perfect for this role, and he has some great dialogues to mouth! Emraan plays the cheating consultant in 90s, so I kind of know what the movie is about because I was in school at that time. The movie has enough meat to not make it just a movie about the cheating culture of India. It has enough emotions to keep you engaged, it has a beautiful love story and tragedy. Also Emraan is good at being evil and bechara at the same time. Good Line I remember is - अगर सिस्टम को उल्लू बनाना है तो सिस्टम के अंदर बैठे उल्लुओं की ज़रूरत पड़ती है
2.0 - 2.0 Stars. (Thriller). G.
सब मरेंगे
Director -S. Shankar
Actors - Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson
Rajni and Shankar are hopelessly outdated at this point. The movie may look ok in 1990s. It is hilarious to look at all the tech stuff they are trying to show, it is right out of a spoof, but it is not. The murders and hilarious and disturbing at the same time. You gotta watch the ridiculous scenes about how Akshay Kumar the villian (Pakshi Raja) gets born, and the scene where Chitti (the Robot from original movie) explain where the radiations are coming! Something to do with positive rays so only positive people aliens get it. These few scenes will remain imprinted in my head rest of my life. In the end when the movie is done, it mysteriously stays with you as you still feel bad for the villain who wants cell phones to die and birds to live! ahh....
Gully Boy - 4.0 Stars. (Drama) G.
गली से संगीत तक
Director - Zoya Akhtar
Actors -Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi
I don't like rags to riches story, I also don't believe in people making it big from nothing are some kind of super heroes. BUT I still like this movie, it is just a well made movie. This guy Ranveer Singh is in a purple patch he can't do nothing wrong! He plays a desi rapper who comes out of Dharavi and becomes big. Zoya Akhtar just knows how to pack a punch. There is some great acting with Aliya and Sidhant playing it to perfection. The movie basically riles the rebel in you and makes you happy. Actually if you compare the movie to Hollywood Rap movies, it is a little lesser of a story, but then India is not a rap country either. Also the 'apna time ayega' did not impress me as a great rap song, but the movie definitely has some good music.
Badla - 3.5 Stars. (Suspense) PG.
में इन्तेक़ाम लूंगा
Director -Sujoy Ghosh
Actors -Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh
You can never go wrong with Whodunit! This is a good very low budget suspense thriller. Don't expect it will give you thrills like some great movies, but it does its job. Actually I expected less than what I got. Taapsee is stuck with a murder charge and Amitabhis the lawyer trying to get her out of it. It felt like the characters were not into the movie, both accomplished actors were not invested into the movie, and it seemed like Amitabh probably completed the shoot in a day or 2 without knowing what the movie is about. Anyway with all the disjoint and disinterest this is a good taut thriller. Just ignore the very last scene, imagine that never happened and it is a good movie. I liked it.
Total Dhamaal - 0 Stars. (Comedy) G.
आपके IQ का इम्तेहान
Director -Indra Kumar
Actors -Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor
Indra Kumar is still at it. Someone stop him please! He is still making exactly same crap that he made during Raja days. I will tell you what is not a comedy - Ajay Devgan Dancing. Ajay Devgan Making comical faces. There is Arshad Warsi and Anil Kapoor who are good comedians, but come on this is a joke! Actually it does has some very stupid scenes that may make you laugh. But I can't support this garbage.
BUDGET MOVIES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Milan Talkies - 1.5 Stars. (Romance) G.
खींचो तानो
Director - Tigmanshu Dhulia
Actors - Ali Fazal, Shraddha Srinath, Sanjay Mishra
Though made with sincere dedication the movie does not impact the way Mr Dhulia wanted it to. There are 3 Phases to this movie, First it seems like it is a light comedy about nothing, then you feel maybe it is a bloody Love story and third and final phase you start getting mad at the movie as things happen in the love story that seriously makes you question IQ of the lead pair. Ali Fazal is a good looking, good actor and Shraddha the new girl is cute but needs to act better. This is not their fault though, they gave all they had. The movie does try to capture the throwback magic of loves stories, just missed the mark.
Mard ko dard nahi hota - 4.0 Stars. (Whacky) G.
ऐसा मर्द न देखा न देखोगे
Director - Vasan Bala
Actors - Abhimanyu Dasani, Radhika Madan, Prateek Parmar
This is out of whack and awesome. The movie is weird it has no beginning and end. Each scene does not flow into another it can flow into anything. Beautifully weird movie making and great creativity.
The lead actor is Bhagyashree's son! wow... Bhagyashree's son is in movies. Ok why i freak out is because I always thought Bhagyashree and Himalay's Love Story was the greatest love story in Bollywood. Bhagyashree chose her high school sweet heart over the entire Bollywood, everyone made fun of her and the BF (who had a name like Himalay) but they survived and rode the sunset as one happy couple giving a tight slpa to society who had nothing better to do but to pooh pooh someone who does not care about them.
Anyway back tot the movie - the movie has an awesome, stupid, comedian, mean and whacky villian. Every character has some relation with another character. The hero has a weird desease that he actually can't experience pain and an awesome Radhika Madan who is cute and knows how to fight. It is one fighting weird love story with borhterly love, Son - Dad and out and out Love everything packed in One good punch of a movie.
Chopsticks - 4.0 Stars. (Drama) G.
डर से डर को काटा जाता है
Director - Sachin Yardi
Actors - Abhay Deol, Mithila Palkar, Vijay Raaz
Generally you don't go wrong with Abhay Deol. very bankable good star. Another great movie, and as is the case in many he is not the star. The female lead - Mithila Parkar is awesome. She was great in 'Little Things' a Netflix series. She plays a unsure under confident girl who runs into Abhay and lot of weird twisted moments and she starts getting confident about life. A cute beautiful story. Best part was - it was not love story, it was also not a friendship story. It was just a story. Girl is a tour guide for chinese tourists and new job so she buys a new car. A thief makes an idiot of her and then starts her journey to getting smart smarter smartest along with another thief (Abhay) he is going to fix a few things.
Lupt - 1.0 Stars. (Horror) PG.
कोशिश डरने की
Director - Prabhuraj
Actors -Javed Jaffrey, Vijay Raaz, Karan Aanand
I am not sure why the producer /director thought of making this movie. I just can't figure. It can't be money because they knew it won't make any. It must be that someone has watched lot of horror movies and wants to make one he can call his own. The movie has everything a horror movie should have, but everything is seen and done before. Javed Jaffrey takes his family to a vacation and strange things happen to them, obviously there is something in the past that is going to resurface. If you have really nothing to do.... mmm... you still should have something to do than watch this. I did it, so you don't have to.
706 - 3.0 Stars. (Suspense / Horror) PG13.
एक और कोशिश
Director - Shravan Kumar
Actors -Mohan Agashe, Raayo S. Bakhirta, Divya Dutta
This is way better movie than the one above this. It has somethings different, you may not have seen before. A kid is weird and psychic and is making people's life miserable by giving clues to them about people murdered or dissappeared etc. The movie has a pretty good pace and it has some good actors to carry it like Ms Divya Dutta, if she is in the movie the movie has to have a weird angle to it. She is slotted in Tabu kind of roles where you know something weird is coming. In case you have not much to do.... you can try this movie.
Kuldeep Patwal- 2.5 Stars. (Drama) PG13.
सिद्ध आदमी पर टेडी मूवी
Director - Remy Kohli
Actors - Deepak Dobriyal, Gulshan Devaiah, Raima Sen
Actually this movie started on a huge high. It felt like a statement movie similar to a Dev and Mulk, but then it trailed off. The movie is about a common man who allegedly kills Chief Minister and then they list reasons he could have done it, there are many pressures on common man, what if whenever he tried to get back on track another peice of legislation takes his livelihood away? Movie faltered in presentation as the court scenes did not make sense. Defense lawyer was trying to tell the court why his client could have killed the chief minister!! I thought lawyer should be defending his client. Obviously as the norm is - we have to give a twist at the very end which also made no sense but huh... we have to live in the post 'sixth sense' world where every movie has to flip the script in the end.
Nirdosh - 2.5 Stars. (Suspense) PG13
दोषी वो है जो मूवी देखता है
Director - Subroto Paul, Pradeep Rangwani
Actors - Ashmit Patel, Manjari Fadnnis, Manisha Kelkar
The movie left no emotin on me. In fact I had to see the trailer to jog my memory. So how good could it have been? The movie was ok, but then they had to take a known face in Arbaaz Khan. He was probably hired for a day to do some interrogation scenes and mouth some dialogues. The guy is horrible, going on about it the same way he has done everytime. Rest of the movie is pretty decent whodunnit. Murder mysteries can never go too wrong. I have noticed that is a movie has names like - Shanaya and Sia... they generally are movies that are pretending to be way cooler than they are.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teen aur Adha - 2.5 Stars. (Drama) R.
तीन कहानी और दिमाग आधा
Director - Dar Gai
Actors - Arya Dave, Chandani Grover, Zoya Hussain
There are 3 stories and I guess another half. Honestly I could understand to a point what they areshowing but after a while I was lost. What the heck is going on, it was a bouncer way beyond my comprehension. First and second stories were still palatable, then the movie lost us in the third one when it had a 5 minute long kissing slurping scene between 60+ people. I mean I have no problem that they did, I have a problem that I saw it.
Music Teacher - 4.0 Stars. (Drama) G.
जीवन एक संघर्ष है
Director - Sarthak Dasgupta
Actors - Divya Dutta, Neena Gupta, Manav Kaul, Amrtia Bagchi.
Beautiful old music, Teacher - Student love story, Art Vs Fame, Art for the sake of Art. Fame Vs Heart... ah... it's poetry. Just watch it with not much of a thought. Submerge in the real world in all it's glory and beauty. I have put it in Artsy category, because you gotta watch with that mindset to enjoy it.
Sonchiriya - 4.5 Stars. (Drama / Action) PG13.
Director- Abhishek Chaubey
Actors- Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Manoj Bajpayee
On surface it is a dacoit movie set in 1980s when there were dacoits in MP / Rajasthan region. The language barrier is huge, the the thick accent can't be understood very well, but if you have time rewind and listen. Dialogues are beautifully done, Daciots call themselves 'baaghi' - rebels. They are fighting against the system. Each character in the movie is so well developed that you start living with them, each one has enough time to give themselves a voice and a place in your heart. Each one of us have a guilt in our heart and a chip on our shoulder and a few things to take care of. I have not seen many movies where each character has hisown story well told. I have put this under Artsy, because if you don't get beyond the Dacoit story you don't see the artsy side to it.
