The Common Man Speaks

Ragini MMS Movie Review

by 2 Comments

Direction: Pawan Kripalani

Production: i Rock Films, Alt Entertainment, Balaji Telefilms

Cast: Raj Kumar Yadav, Kainaz Motivala

Rating: * * *

If a horror genre flick starts off with a full length Hanuman Chalisa, it surely raises your expectations for a spine-chilling experience. Although Ragini MMS doesn’t fully succeed in terrifying you to your wits, it definitely deserves a watch (if you are non-conservative) for some creatively crafted scenes and for being a new age horror film.

Based on a true story, the film is about a brash foul-mouthed Uday (Raj Kumar Yadav) who takes his girlfriend Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) for a naughty weekend outside city at a friend’s bungalow. Ragini is unaware that Uday and his friend have rigged the bungalow with spy cameras in order to record the sexual activities between the couple. Uday’s plan goes haywire as the couple starts experiencing some bizarre incidents.

A well made horror film needs to be loaded with terrifying scenes which should also take the audience by surprise apart from telling an interesting tale. Pawan Kripalani and Vaspar Dandiwala’s writing provides that as the events in the first half have a number of frightening moments which keep the audience at the edge of their seats. There is an interesting mix of sex and horror which works and builds excitement for the second half.

As a director, Kripalani deserves applause for handling the subject with maturity. He also succeeds in shooting a horror film in a never-seen-before manner through some intelligent use of spy cams. He is aptly supported by Tribhuvan Babu’s cinematography and Jitendra Chaudhary’s background score, which thankfully doesn’t contain the overuse of loud sounds we often see in non-terrifying horror films.

The post-interval portions, however, do not amuse much. After a shocking incident (not possible to reveal), a good amount of time is spent in freeing Ragini from the handcuffs, which tests the audience’s patience after a point of time. Even the penultimate terrifying moments appear funny. It is also not explained why the ghost (who repeats the same lines in Marathi) commits all those killings. On top of that, we have an abrupt climax.

Performances are another plus point. Raj Kumar Yadav appears very real. He is terrific during scary moments. Kainaz Motivala plays her part perfectly and displays different emotions with ease.

Overall, the plusses of Ragini MMS manage to overshadow the minuses. The very low budget and positive word-of-mouth should keep its producers (i Rock Films, Alt Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms) happy.

Luv Ka The End Review

by Leave a Comment

Director: Bumpy

Producers: Y Films

Starring: Shraddha Kapoor, Tahaa Shah, Pushtie S

Rating: *

A girl sets out to take revenge on her cheating boyfriend. The girl succeeds in it but what about the audience? As the girl executes her plan (if we can call it), the poor junta is subjected to some non-believable and non-amusing events which eventually make them wince!

The plot of Y Films’ (youth wing of Yash Raj Films) Luv Ka The End is about how Rhea (Shraddha Kapoor) teaches Luv (Taaha Shah) a lesson for cheating her and deciding to ‘use’ her. There’s no problem with the plot but the way Rhea takes revenge appears plain brainless.

The makers have time and again stressed the fact that its film for today’s youth. But do they think today’s youngsters are so absurd that they will break the guy’s car, sprinkle itching powder in his underwear and portray him as a gay by making him dance in a Ghaghara Choli, in order to teach him a lesson? Even the humour thrown in fails to create a giggle, forget laughter. On top of that, the extra-dud climax provides a perfect icing on the cake for a poor product!

We also have characters like a girl who wears something like a swimming costume in an exam, a guy who is proud of himself as he can move his chest, an oversized pervert who can do anything to get hot girls for his party and a professor who is a replica of Savita Bhabhi!

But the biggest non-believable aspect of the story is that Luv is an active participant on a website where guys upload their love-making videos in order to earn points. The more girls, especially sweet virgins (as they call it), you lay; the more are your chances of being the winner. Imagine, guys openly participating in such a contest from all over India and happily uploading videos of their sexual adventures for the whole world to see!

Director Bumpy doesn’t make a bad debut. You can’t blame him if the script itself is shoddy. But the film somewhat scores in the music department as the title song and the Mutton song are hummable.

Although Shraddha Kapoor isn’t outstanding, she does justice to her character and looks confident. But casting Taaha Shah in such a role is a grave mistake. Not because he overacts in some situations but because it is difficult to believe that girls can be so crazy for such a character, as shown in the film. Pushtie S is the star of the show! Her dialogue delivery and witty dialogues do make you smile. Sreejita De is not bad while Rahul Pardasany is likable.

Overall, Luv Ka The End makes us shudder to think about Y Films’ forthcoming films, if this is what they wish to serve today’s youth. At the box-office, the film has some chance but only in selected metros.

Chalo Dilli Movie Review

by 2 Comments

Direction: Shashant Shah

Production: Big Daddy Productions, Eros International Media Ltd, Bheegi Basanti Entertainment

Starring: Vinay Pathak, Lara Dutta

Ratings: * * 1/2

Circumstances force a man and a woman to travel together on a long journey, which has a number of ups and downs. Before the journey ends, they develop affection and respect for each other. However, they don’t fall in love nor do they get a crush on each other. This is Shashant Shah’s Chalo Dilli’s noteworthy achievement. Other than this, this road trip saga (similar to Due Date and Planes, Trains and Automobiles) suffers from a slow narrative and lacks interesting moments. It is Vinay Pathak’s greatness that makes you somewhat satisfied in the end.

The whole idea was to let Mihika Banerjee (Lara Dutta), a high profile investment banker, experience the simple rural life of India with a chatterbox acquaintance Manu Gupta (Vinay Pathak) in a journey from Jaipur to Delhi. The way both the characters meet and are later forced to travel together is interesting and their interaction gives rise to a number of humorous moments. Although not fast paced, the first half is interesting and promising.

The script, however, starts going downhill in the second half where the situations and characters thrown in fail to amuse much. The goon track and Yana Gupta’s raunchy item number just don’t gel with the story. But thanks to a guest appearance by a superstar and some moving drama in the climax, the film manages to produce a smile.

And talking about smiles, they also produced in plenty by the dialogues which are the backbone of this flick. Apart from the song Matargashtiyan, the music is not much to talk about.

Although his character appears similar to the one he played in Bheja Fry, Vinay Pathak steals the show here. He carries the film on his shoulders with his lovable acts which also overshadow the weakness in the script. Having said that, Lara Dutta too produces a mature act. This is one of her better performances till date.

Overall, Chalo Dilli, is a strictly one-time affair as it falls in the could-have-been-great categories. Due to the multiple releases, the film will have a tough time at the box-office.

Dum Maaro Dum Movie Review

by 5 Comments

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Rana Daggubati, Prateik Babbar, Aditya Panscholi

Director: Rohan Sippy

Music: Pritam, R D Burman

Producers: Ramesh Sippy Entertainment, Fox Star Studios

Ratings: * * ½

Let’s face it: there is a dearth of quality crime thrillers in Bollywood since very long. But with the arrival of Dum Maaro Dum and its impressive promos, it seemed that the vacancy will be filled. The film has an interesting story and is gripping most of the times only to mess up in the climax. Hence, the vacancy is still not filled.

In Goa, Lorry (Prateik) fails to get a scholarship at a US university but his girlfriend gets through easily. Lorry is eager to be with his girlfriend in the US but is way short of funds. So he agrees to deliver a drug consignment in the US in order to earn a thick sum in a short time. Lorry is forced by his friend Joki (Rana Daggubati) against walking on the dreaded path but to no avail. Long before that, Zoe (Bipasha) had unwillingly become a part of the drug mafia as she had agreed to deliver drugs in order to fulfill her dream of becoming an air-hostess.

Meanwhile, ACP Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan) is given the task of uprooting drug mafia from Goa. Kamath comes face-to-face with a big name in the field of drugs – Lorsa Biscuita. However, Kamath doesn’t have a proof against him. He soon gets to know that the man behind the whole scene is Michael Barbosa. But who is Barbosa? Nobody from the police force has seen him.

Director Rohan Sippy deserves praise for the way he has filmed the story. Sleek style, apt colour print, fast narration, jazzy camerawork, witty dialogues and a powerful background score make for an interesting viewing. However, it’s Shridhar Raghvan’s story and the screenplay (in the second half) that’s not up to the mark.

The scenario is build up very well in the first half but the writing loses some grip in the second.  Also the re-appearance of the characters’ dark past wasn’t needed. But those aren’t the biggest problems. The biggest letdown is the climax where Abhishek’s character is sidelined and it is not revealed how the mystery is solved! Even the suspense about Barbosa is far from satisfying.

Pritam’s music is nothing much to talk about. The most important title track, a classic from R D Burman, is ripped apart in the remix by adding some ugliest of words possible. Even Deepika Padukone’s forced hot avatar doesn’t help it.

Abhishek Bachchan is having a dreadful run at the box-office but has been giving good performances. In DMD, he gives his best performance in a long time. He shows concrete toughness as an ACP and at the same time is wonderful in emotional scenes. Clearly an under-rated actor in today’s times!

Rana Daggubati makes a confident debut. Although an actor like him deserves a meatier role, he manages well. Bipasha Basu achieves perfection playing a troubled character. Prateik Babbar shows maturity but his character just doesn’t look like a 17-year old. It’s a joke!

Aditya Panscholi is good as a villain and so is Govind Namdeo as Abhishek’s assistant. Muzammil S. Qureshi, another debutant, does well and has a good sense of humour.

Overall, Dum Maaro Dum fails to make use of the opportunity of being a quality crime thriller. At the box-office, the film has a chance of earning well in the metros.

First Film Titled FALTU Released in 2005

by 2 Comments

Vashu Bhagnani’s youth oriented film F.A.L.T.U starring Jackky Bhagnani and debutant Pooja Gupta and directed by first timer Remo D’Souza is making waves because of its unusual and faadoo title. However, hardly few people remember or are aware of the fact that this is not the first film with such a title. A film titled Faltu had released in 2005. Unfortunately, because of the arty subject and a lack of publicity, the movie just went unnoticed. But I still remember watching the promos of the 2005 film many number of times.

The 2005 film was Bengali filmmaker Anjan Das’ first Hindi film and it starred Yash Pandit and Manjari Phadnis in the lead. Well-known Bengali actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Indrani Haldar were also a part of the cast. The film was based on well-known Bengali writer Syed Mustafa Siraj’s novel Ranirghater Brittanto.

The story deals with a 20 year old boy called Faltu (Pandit) from the village of Ranirghat who is in love with Tuktuki (Phadnis). Faltu was born after a series of men raped a mentally retarded woman Suri Khepi (Haldar). A census order by the government forces Faltu to search his father. Little did Faltu know that the truth with shatter his as well as Tuktuki’s life forever.

A look at the posters of both the movies:

Thank You Movie Review

by Leave a Comment

Thank You Movie Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Irfan Khan, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Sonam Kapoor, Rimi Sen, Celine Jaitley

Director: Anees Bazmee

Music: Pritam

Producers: UTV Motion Pictures, Hari Om Productions

 

Expectations from Anees Bazmee’s Thank You were limited because of the extra-marital affair theme which is done to death in Bollywood, promos which failed to create much excitement and lastly because memories of Bazmee’s last flick No Problem, which was a dud has still not disappeared from audience’s minds. And as expected, Thank You doesn’t succeed in being a non-stop interesting entertainer although some well-written witty dialogues and Irfan Khan’s lovable performance make it a watchable affair.

The central idea of the movie is based on just one premise – all men are dogs who can go any heights to cheat their wives. In this case, they are Raj Malhotra (Bobby Deol), Vikram (Irfan Khan) and Yogi (Suniel Shetty), close friends and colleagues who are habitual in cheating their wives Sanjana (Sonam Kapoor), Karthika (Rimi Sen) and Radha (Celina Jaitley), and having fun with other girls. After suspecting Raj for having an extra-marital affair, Sanjana hires Kishan (Akshay Kumar), who specializes in exposing cheating husbands and solving an extra-marital affair. What follows is a crazy turn of events which leads onto an unexpected climax.

Bazmee uses his old formula of presenting exotic foreign locations, creating slapstick humour in crazy situations, adding jazzy music and background score and adding lots of spice (exposure) in order to create large doses of entertainment. In Thank You, his formula works but only in parts. Although the writing (Bazmee, Rajiv Kaul, Rajan Agarwal, Nisar Akhtar and Ikram Akhtar) gives rise to a number of jaw-dropping sequences, it loses grip regularly, especially in the last 30 minutes where emotional scenes are thrown up which just don’t gel with the nature of the film. And the mystery about Akshay Kumar’s character appears silly.

Dialogues here are the biggest strong point and they act as a saving grace. Ravi Yadav’s cinematography is another plus point. Pritam does a decent job as a music director by providing tracks like Pyaar Do Pyaar Lo and Razia.

Irfan Khan deserves thumbs up for a mature comic act which even succeeds in keeping the interest alive even when things aren’t that interesting. In fact, his is coming is the backbone of the film. Although Akshay Kumar has appeared in a number of comic capers, he gets to do something different here. His act will satisfy his fans. Bobby Deol’s performance ranges between good to average. Suniel Shetty succeeds in being funny but looks uncomfortable in few sequences.

Of all the three actresses, Rimi Sen impresses the most and also looks beautiful. Sonam Kapoor grows as an actress although she doesn’t achieve that much perfection. Celina Jaitley’s character mysteriously disappears after the interval. Anyways, she was just forgetful.

The big relief with Thank You is that it is anytime better than No Problem. Watch it if you have nothing to do and just wish to while away time. At the box-office, the movie has some chance as such mindless comedies have had a good history at the ticket window in recent years.

F.A.L.T.U Movie Review

by 3 Comments

Ratings: * *

Cast: Jackky Bhagnani, Pooja Gupta, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Angad Bedi, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh

Director: Remo D’Souza

Music: Jigar, Sachin

Producers: Puja Entertainment Ltd

In recent times, a number of Bollywood movies have appealed a change in our education system with 3 Idiots topping the list. Choreographer Remo D’Souza’s directorial debut F.A.L.T.U attempts the same. However, the way in which the film tries to convey the message is just too mindless to believe which just takes away the impact of the final outcome.

Ritesh (Jackky Bhagnani), Pooja Nigam (Pooja Chopra), Nanj (Angad Bedi) and Vishnu (Chandan Roy Sanyal) are the best of college friends. While Vishnu is a bookworm who always scores in the 90s, rest of the three are spoilt brats who just aim to pass the examination somehow. Because of that, Ritesh, Pooja and Nanj are unable to get admission in a single college for higher education because of their low grades. In order to escape their parents’ wrath, the trio lie to their parents that they have got admission in a non-existent college called Fakirchand And Lakirchand Trust University (F.A.L.T.U).

Although the parents believe their children, they are hell bent in visiting their college. Hence, Ritesh takes help from his friend Google Chand (Arshad Warsi) and gets hold of a ruin-like building at Panchgani and converts it into F.A.L.T.U. Google hires a school teacher Bajirao (Riteish Deshmukh) and makes him the fake principal of the college and also decides to bring huge numbers of fake students in order to fool the trio’s parents.

The whole idea of capturing an abandoned building and converting it into a fake university by spending a bomb on it is just indigestible. Although Google lends money to Ritesh for the task, the former’s profession is never revealed so it leaves a big question mark as to how and why he agreed to lend such a large amount for such a fake thing. On top of that, Google and Bajirao help the trio in converting the fake university into a genuine one!

But the biggest apathy in the story is the fact that actual students turn up in the fake university after getting admissions in it by applying through the university’s fake website. How on earth did they get admissions? Whom did they pay the fees to? Didn’t they have a word with anyone before deciding to go stay out of city at the university? Sadly, there are other fallacies too!

Plus, the screenplay glorifies activities like being a spoilt brat, seeing women as just an object of desire and it also ends up giving a crash course on how to be a drunkard.

The biggest plus point of F.A.L.T.U is that it gives an important message of letting youngsters enter a field in which they are interested. For this, the climax deserves applause. A dance performance at a college festival deserves special mention.

Jigar and Sachin’s music plays a vital role in keeping the entertainment quotient alive. The song Party Abhi Baaki Hai is already a rage. Other songs like Bhoot Aaya, Aaltu Jalaltu and Le Ja Tu Mujhe are impressive too.

Jackky Bhagnani rises to a different level as compared to his debut performance in Kal Kissne Dekha. He plays the lead character with maturity. Chandan Roy Sanyal is superb. This is yet another lovable act from him after Kaminey. Angad Bedi is likable while debutant Pooja Gupta is not bad. Ritesh Deshmukh in a new avatar impresses and so does Arshad Warsi although he appears over-the-top in few sequences. From the supporting cast, Darshan Jariwala is the best.

Despite negative points, F.A.L.T.U has taken a positive opening at the box-office as it has attracted the youth. Hence, it has a chance of having a good run at the ticket window, especially after the ICC Cricket World Cup is over.

Director Ashutosh Gowariker Enthralls Symbiosis Students

by 2 Comments

(I was overwhelmed when my dear friend Padmanabh Subramanian aka Pady requested me to post this article of his on my blog. It’s a matter of pride for me that someone considers my blog as a platform to share his or her experience.)

 

The ‘Lagaan’ director was at Symbiosis Institute Of International Business, Hinjewadi, Pune for a discussion on management & film-making.

By: Padmanabh Subramanian

Leadership skills, ethical practices, effective planning and execution, human relations, emotional quotient, etc. are key managerial skills, MBA students aspire for. Cinema and process of film-making have always been closely associated with these managerial aspects. Such qualities are best-depicted through films and therefore, today movie-scripts are often used as case studies in educational institutes and the corporate world. Director- Mr. Ashutosh Gowariker is one such film-maker whose protagonists Bhuvan (Lagaan) & Mohan Bharghav (Swades) changed our perception of the conventional ‘hero’, by bringing about a revolution through lateral thinking, with patriotism as the backdrop.

On 18th February 2011, Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Hinjewadi Pune (SIIB) invited Mr. Ashutosh Gowariker for a guest lecture on “Management & managerial aspects of films and film-making”. Dr. Rajani Gupte, Director, SIIB and Dr. Vidya Yervadekar, Principal Director, Symbiosis Society, were also a part of the programme.


Mr. Gowariker began the session, with his early experiences as an actor, gradually moving towards film-making, which involved financing, operational issues, film-promotions & marketing, etc. He then spoke about how he zeroed down ‘leading actors’ for his films, based on the character’s temperament. He also threw light on how a film’s success and failure both are equally important for a film-maker.

Highlights of the session:

The simplicity, humility & straightforwardness with which Mr. Ashutosh put forth his points, thoughts, ideas and experiences, wrapped in humour, had the audience in splits.He came down to the level of youngsters which set the comfort level of the audience. The journey of his gradual evolution from an actor to director, director to a producer and finally from a producer to writer, with confusion and chaos at every stage, is something every youngster faces at this point of time, and could therefore connect to the transition process instantly. The interaction was the USP of the show, since people actually came out with frank, open queries, and having most of the questions answered much to their satisfaction.

Overall, it was a highly interactive, humorous and interesting session, and the audience enjoyed every bit of it.

7 Khoon Maaf Review

by 2 Comments

Rating: 3 out of 5

Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Vivaan Shah, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Anu Kapoor, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Naseruddin Shah

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Music: Vishal Bhardwaj

Producers: UTV Spotboy, V B Films

Vishal Bhardwaj is known for making dark and unusual pieces of cinema. And after watching the promos of his latest offering 7 Khoon Maaf, it looked that this is the darkest and the most unusual thing to have come out of him. And as expected, this is indeed the case. Because of this and the final culmination, 7 Khoon Maaf will appeal only to a selected class audience and not to the masses. Having said that, Bhardwaj deserves accolades for his impressive creativity as a director and also for some out-of-the-box narration.

Based on writer Ruskin Bond’s novel Susanna’s Seven Husbands, the story focuses on Susanna’s (Priyanka Chopra) encounter with her husbands – Major Edwin Rodrigues (Neil Nitin Mukesh), rock performer Jimmy Stetson (John Abraham), poet Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan Khan), Russian Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko), inspector Keemat Lal (Anu Kapoor) and Dr Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseruddin Shah) – and how and why she gets rid of them. Arun Kumar (Vivaan Shah) also becomes an integral part of Susanna’s life.

Although in each story Susanna ends up killing her husband, the tales are as different from each other as chalk and cheese and so are all the murders. In fact, the unusual and witty way… (TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW, PLEASE CLICK HERE)

Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji Review

by 2 Comments

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Shazahn Padamsee, Shraddha Das, Shruti Haasan, Tisca Chopra

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Music: Pritam

Producers: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Madhur Bhandarkar

Rating: * * * 1/2

After earning a name in movies based on serious issues and women oriented films, director Madhur Bhandarkar tries something altogether different in Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji as he steps on to a romantic comedy. Questions started doing the rounds whether Bhandarkar will succeed in treading on a path where he has never put his feet before. However, in Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji, Bhandarkar proves that if one has the right vision, talent and determination, one can succeed in any genre.

A not-so-happy Naren is getting divorced from his wife (Rituparna Sengupta). In order to kill loneliness during this tragic time, he shifts to his old house and finds two roommates, Milind Kelkar (Omi Vaidya), a conservative Maharashtrian and Abhay (Emraan Hashmi), an out-and-out playboy.

During this time, Naren falls for his new office colleague June (Shazahn Padamsee), Milind finds love in RJ Gungun Sarkar (Sharddha Das) after a chance meeting with her and Abhay enters into a relationship with an elderly woman Anushka (Tisca Chopra). How Naren and Milind try to complete their love story and how Abhay’s life takes a dramatic turn forms the rest of the story.

Although the story and the situations appear filmy, Bhandarkar adds life to the proceedings by adding some realistic touch to various scenes (for which he is known). The screenplay (Bhandarkar, Anil Pandey and Neeraj Udvani) and Sanjay Chhel’s dialogues play a vital role in keeping the interest alive and giving some good rib-tickling moments.

Special mention should be given to the climax, which, thankfully, is way different from other numerous romantic comedies and the one which surely brings a smile. In fact, the climax plays a pivotal role in making Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji special.

On the flipside, Emraan Hashmi’s love story with Shruti Haasan is far from convincing and appears half-baked. Also the plot looses some grip in the second half but the last 30 minutes and, as stated earlier, the climax make up for everything.

Pritam’s music suits the film perfectly. Abhi Kuchh Dino Se, which is already popular, Tu Khwab Hai and Tere Bin are melodious, pleasant and also have repeat value.

Ajay Devgn once again shows why he is one of the best actors in Bollywood. He plays a man with middle-aged crisis with maturity and sincerity. He displays intenseness in serious scenes and is also good with his comic timing. It’s tiring to see Emraan Hashmi play a bad guy again and again. However, taking nothing away from the actor, it should be said he plays his part with perfection.

After a memorable act in 3 Idiots, Omi Vaidya’s next performance was keenly awaited. Omi doesn’t disappoint his fans as he presents another lovable act. His funny dialogue delivery, unusual expressions as well as his act in emotional scenes is sure to impress all.

Shazahn Padamsee suits the role perfectly although she sounds childish at times. Shraddha Das shows promise and looks fabulous. Shruti Haasan is average in a role which is much less meatier than other two ladies. Tisca Chopra plays her part very well.

Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji is easily one of the best works of Madhur Bhandarkar which has a chance of impressing youngsters as well as grown ups. At the box-office, the film has a chance of clicking.