Bajirao Mastani

Build up:
Love story of Peshwa Baji Rao of the Maratha empire with Mastani, and their trial by fire in course of the love saga. Bajirao(Ranveer Singh), Deepika Padukone(Mastani), Priyanka Chopra(Kashi) and Tanvi Azmi(Maa Sahib), make the main cast.

What we see:

• Visit to history at the time of the Maratha empire with Baji Rao being near to invincible 
• Bajirao is a fearless warrior and is very rational about his decisions
• Extends help to Bundelkhand on the request of valiant princess (Mastani) - pretty and tough
• Follows him back to Pune, for love and as tradition of Bundelkhand, she is married to him
• Once she reaches Pune, she is targetted at various instances and comes out victorious, as love is her only motivation
• Kashi on the other hand believes that her beloved husband is in love with another woman when she herself views it, and takes her time to digest it

What I like:

• The grandeur of the sets of the palace, the war scenes
• All 3 angles of the love triangle hold their fort with grace and strong performances
• Dialogues by Ranveer and Deepika

What i didnt like:

• not much but the conspiracy angle got dragged a lil too far

Rating: 3.5/5

Dilwale

Much awaited movie featuring the 90s and early 2000s hit jodi SRK and Kajol....we didnt need any other reason than them to watch this. Rohit Shetty took the magical jodi and put them in his favourite location and toys and made 'Dilwale'

Movie stars SRK (Raj - patented name na), Kajol (Meera), Varun Dhawan(Veer) and 
Kriti Sanon(Ishita), alongwith Boman Irani, Sanjay Mishra, blink and you miss Kabir Bedi and Vinod Khanna

The Brothers Raj and Veer, are in picturesque Goa, modifying cars - what else??? and Veer is tongue tied when he has to patao Ishita(issue). For some strange reason, they want to head into marriage quickly and approach Raj to speak to Issue's sister. Elder brother and Elder sister meet and then all hell breaks loose....into flashback... Meera and Raj (then called Kaali) knew each other and were in love.Fate had other plans and they were separated due to the age old formula of misunderstanding (when they had phones, why ant they just call/txt each other to clarify). 

Kaali was a gangster heir apparent and Meera was a street artist. HE let all the past at Bulgaria and started afresh in Goa, and always doting on his baby brother that you will feel diabetic.

Cut to present, Meera firmly says no to the alliance and starts making unreasonable demands to the younger siblings' marriage. Typical Bollywood provides the fodder to make her say yes to this including forgiving Kaali/Raj and they all live happily ever after...

What I Liked:
Kajol looks amazing
SRK is back to his Chak De sexy look (stubble suits him)
Gerua - it'll give u goosebumps and wish you were in the song too
Comic relief from Boman and Sanjay Mishra(Apple Singh)

What i didnt like:
No solid Script - all coy paste from Raj/Rahul moments over the years

It's a No brainer Bollywood masala, which Rohit Shetty took a the audiences for a ride in a wobbly car than the swanky ones he blows up

Rating: 2/5

Ek Villain

Build up:
Coming from the same director of Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain stars Sidharth Malhotra as Guru  ,Shraddha Kapoor as Aisha and Ritesh Deshmukh as Rakesh. Primarily set in Goa, is a tale of a love story of a villain, and has all the makings of a Bollywood masala movie

What we see:

• Guru is a contract killer for Remo(looks ugly) and bumps into Aisha while he is being beaten up in jail
• She follows him around like a Vodafone puppy and trying to make him smile with all her life gyaan, cracking really non laughable jokes (sometimes feel like slapping her)
• Her only mission in life is to make random people smile, which keeps her happy
• One fine day, Guru decides to help her, stopping his contract killer ways... and obviously they fall in love
• Meanwhile there is a parallel love story of  Rakesh, a hen pecked husband with Sulo(a full on nagging Aamna Shariff) is introduced to us.
• He loves his wife so much that he kills for her, and brings home trinkets - Kya pyaar hai!!
• And somewhere the love stories meet which sets the pace of the movie

Delights:

• Sid Malhotra - he is so hot, loves and kills with the same intensity... and can be the new age angry young man - you can draw similarities
• Banjaara and Galiyaan are wonderful, soothing on the nerves

Disappointments:

• Story gets a lil jerky in bits cos of switching between past and present
• Nagging & screeching Aamna Shariff
• Remo Fernandez - we loved what you sang over the years.. on screen we cant handle
• Prachi Desai - you cant look seductive even if you exchange DNA with Sunny Leone

Rating: 3/5 - All for Sidharth Malhotra - he is eye candy, and is a visual treat to women
 

2 States

Build Up:
Based on Chetan Bhagat's best selling autobiography of the same name, stars Arjun Kapoor as Krish Malhotra, Alia Bhatt as Ananya Swaminathan who fall in love while in IIM-A, and want to get married with the blessings of their parents. Nothing wrong, just that Krish is a Punjabi from Delhi and Ananya is a Tam Brahm from Chennai. How they battle it out is what the movie all about.

What we see:

• Krish meets Ananya in IIM-A and they have a rocking time for the 2 years of their course. Studying in each other's rooms, making out and all the usual college happenings, including a well choreographed song spanning the 2 years
• Commitment time creates a situation where the respective parents get off on the wrong foot, with each accusing the other in politically incorrect statements.. This sets the tone for the major part of the movie
• Krish has an uphill task in patafying the entire family in totally unfamiliar territory of Chennai and manages to get them to accept him
• Ananya comes over to Delhi to do the same, including salvaging the honour of the family in a stick situation at a wedding. She also emerges successful
• Biggest problem is to get the families accept each other, without flying at each other's throats and making stereotypical comments of the part of India the other is from
• Push comes to shove, and the situation has gone out of hand till a miracle happens and the wedding is on course - All's well that ends well :)

Delights:

• The screenplay of the romance between Krish and Ananya
• The music from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, and the lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya
• Revathy as the authentic Tam Brahm mom... she's a class apart as always

Disappointments: - That's a looooong list now

• Alia Bhatt can act, but Tam Brahm she is not - who can be convinced that the girl who wears shorts in the campus is all the time in sarees at home. Four words in Tamil is all that she says
• Arjun Kapoor can model for Garnier Fructis Hard Gel - Same hairstyle all through movie irrespective of the years. He also looks like he ingested some of it - Same expression through the movie
• Tam and Punju stereotypical statements - color of skin, upbringing, timing of wedding etc gets on your nerves eventually
• 2nd half has too much drama and it wears you down
• Ronit Roy - angry man you are...but not stone cold and dead... You can do better

Rating: 2.5/5 - only for the first half, cos its light. After reading the book, hopes were high, and movie didn't quite justify the drama in the novel
(Should learn adaptations of books to movies from Hollywood)

Main Tera Hero

Build up:

David Dhawan - Comedy king of the 90s is back on the comedy charter this time with his son Varun, and hopefully who we think are good looking leading ladies, Ileana D'cruz and Nargis Fakhri. And a few condiments for the tadka in the plot- Arunoday Singh, Rajpal Yadav, Anupam Kher, Loveleen Sharma(remember the babe in YJHD trekking in shorts), and a guest appearance from Shakti Kapoor (aaaaaooooooouuuuuuu)

What we see:

• Srinath Prasad(Varun) aka Seenu is absolutely aimless in life and decides to shift base to Bangalore in search of his tree of enlightenment (Degree). Apart from studying, he can do anything that borders on gunda gardi
• Love at first sight with Sunaina, who is terrified to even glance at him. Courtesy: Her supposed fiancé Angad (Arunoday Singh) who is on anger management classes.
• Sunaina loves Seenu amidst all the fights and song singing, till a small hiccup occurs
• Enter Aisha (Nargis) who is besotted with Seenu, and will marry only him and no one else...and daddy will agree to anything she wants

To unravel the Bollywood styletwists ... and have a good laugh to de-stress... head to the nearest multiplex and watch the movie

Delights:

• Varun's comic timing  - reminds you of Govinda, but in a new, sophisticated, 6-Pack avatar.
• Varun's dancing and patafying
• Ileana in her damsel in distress avatar - kinda believable and looks good
• Arunoday like a blabbering, bumbling baboon
• Music is foot tapping and catchy

Disappointments:

• Nargis Fakhri can't act or look pretty - hot bod/bikini/pout collection doesn't compensate for lack of acting skills/expressions/dialogue delivery

Rating:3.5/5 - All for Varun, his comedy, 6-pack and the music


 

Ragini MMS2

After a long hiatus from my movie reviews, decided to get back into the habit... with maybe a new approach

Background: Ragini MMS2 is a sequel to the famously infamous Ragini MMS (based on a supposedly real life incident)

What we see:

• Projected as a Horrorex (Horror+Sex) movie, obviously with Sunny Leone in it... not even expecting it..
• This is a movie shooting within a movie (trying to create Ragini MMS) and all the creepy things associated with the usual horror fare
• Every other starlet is waiting for the opportunity to jump into the other's bed or in the shower or in a game of "I never"
• The movie focuses only on Sunny, Sunny & Sunny till the director realizes that the horror element has to be incorporated
• Few scenes of evil possessing most of the crew, and blood and gore later does a US returned psychiatrist realize the solution to releasing the evil
• They all lived (whoever was left) happily ever after

Delights:
Sunny Leone' s sizzling screen presence

Disappointments:
Pretty much most of the script and screenplay (Theatre was 20% full on day 1)

Rating: 2/5

Talaash

 

Directed by Reema Kagti, stars Aamir Khan(Surjan), Rani Mukherji(Roshni), Kareena Kapoor(Rosie)and Nawazuddin Siddiqui(Temur).

Movie opens with a big-bang accident which involves a car falling into the Arabian Sea in the middle of the night. Search operations reveal an upcoming famous movie star Armaan Kapoor (Vivaan Bathena). Surjan is entrusted the investigation of the accident, which kick starts the movie. Surjan and Roshni move into a new neighbourhood and Roshni is welcomes by nosy neighbor Frenny(Shernaz Patel). There is not much conversation between the couple and Roshni is spending a good amount of her time with the psychiatrist, to overcome a major tragedy in their life, for which Surjan holds himself responsible. Surjan is a workaholic and spends all day and night on the investigation. This leads him to meeting Rosie,a call girl and she enchants him, giving him certain subtle clues about the accident. He spends a considerable amount of time in the red-light areas since that’s where the common thread of the accident lies. Temur on the side wants to make a quick buck thinking he knows the cause of the accident.

Multiple encounters later, he seeks her to get his peace of mind and puts together the pieces of the puzzle that leads him to the reason behind the accident, and eventually closes the case.

What I liked:

The script is strong and does not need the usual song-dance routines or unwanted fate induced situations

Aamir Khan as the angry expressionless cop, with a heart of gold – only one scene has he beaten up a pimp

Kareena Kapoor – no overacting, pouting…just a subtle glam doll who seduces with her dialogues

What I did not like:

Second half had too much build up to the answers and ending was like a sudden drop of a cliff

My rating: 3/5