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

 

Cocktail

Cocktail stars Saif Ali Khan(Gautam Kapoor), Deepika Padukone(Veronica), Diana Penty(Meera), Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani. Directed by Homi Adajania (who earlier directed ‘Being Cyrus’) revolves around friendship, love, and all other complications associated with it.

Teary eyed Meera lands in London and bumps into the wild party animal Veronica in a rest room. Having nowhere to go, she ends up staying in Veronica’s house and they become soul sisters (haven’t they learnt from real life where 2 good looking women cannot be friends/soul sisters). One night of partying makes way for them meeting Gautam and surprise surprise, he too moves into the house. The 3 have a ball of a time living together, with Gautam having his interests with Veronica and a cordial respect for Meera. Mom Dimple suddenly turns up to find her son Gutlu(Gautam,obviously) living with 2 women and he convinces her that Meera is the love of his life.
On a weekend trip, Gautam discovers his feelings for Meera and things go into an emotional whirlpool. Meera allows them to re-discover each other. Veronica meanwhile, tries to turn things around and all emotions get complicated between the three of them.


What I liked:
Diana Penty- looks so waif-like and doesn’t want to let go of her Indian ness and reinforces that Silence is Golden
Deepika Padukone in a rare display of acting- one as a party animal, a rich spolit brat but with a heart of gold; another as a girl desperate to make the love of her life accept her as marriage material
Tracks - Daaru Desi & Tumhi ho bandhu


What I didn’t:
Saif trying to be 25 something at 40, and looking ridiculous
Movie could’ve ended 15 min earlier, and spared all of us the emotional atyachaar


My rating: 2.5/5(can wait till it comes on TV)

Force

Force is inspired from the Tamil movie Kaakha Kaakha…starring Suriya and Jyothika in 2003. The Hindi remake stars John Abraham – in one of those single hero movies and Genelia D’souza., and is directed by Nishikant Kamath , who earlier directed Mumbai meri Jaan.


Force is a story of ACP Yashwardhan, who is unattached to anyone in this world. He is tough cop and beats his opposition to pulp for good measure. After all he has the body built to that effect and is put to good use. He is part of the Anti-Narcotics team, headed by Raj Babbar, and puts together an inner circle to fight the drug mafia. They manage to wipe out the menace when they realize that the informer was making it too easy for their comfort. All that happened was set the stage for Vishnu (newcomer Vidyut Jamwal) to rule the drug empire. Meanwhile social activist Maya (Genelia) randomly bumps into him till he develops feelings for her and realizes when she meets with an accident. She then turns on her bubbly charm and makes all attempts to get him to reciprocate, which well takes a while. Why? ACP is a lil slow on the emotions department and thinks they are a distraction and he can lose his focus. But she will just not give up, till they finally decide to get married.


Vishnu’s brother is killed in an encounter and the rest of the movie turns into a run-catch-kill not just the team of the NCB, but their families as well.


What I liked:
Superlike: John’s awesome sculpted body
Masala movie with all the action – esp the opening scene where John tries a rock climbing thing like Tom Cruise in MI2
Amit Gaur as Mahesh (Khadak Singh) – very cute and nice to the eye


What I super dislike:
John cant emote or be romantic for nuts – too wooden, like his sculpted body
Monotonous characterization of Genelia – she has replaced Preity Zinta on the bubbly meter but is highly irritating
No chemistry between John n Genelia - looks very awkward
Story is too slow and can distract you from what’s happening on screen


My rating: 2/5 (just watch it if you wanna watch John’s abs and want a typical masala movie)

Mausam

Touted as one well planned movie, directed by Pankaj Kapur for starring his son Shahid (Harry),wife Supriya Pathak Kapur (Fatima) and Sonam Kapoor (Aayat). Set in a sleepy l’il village of Mallukot in Punjab takes you through a love story through more than a decade.


Harry is a carefree and chilled out guy, who is just waiting for his letter to join the Indian Air Force. He bumps into Aayat when she just lands up in the village to be taken care of by her bua, as her father is in hiding due to the Babri Masjid issue.


Harry keeps watching her while she is going to school but does not have the courage to have any conversation with her. The first time he does is with small notes while she is putting mehendi on his sister’s hands for her wedding. He gathers up the courage to confess his feelings for her, but the next day she leaves the village suddenly. Coincidentally he gets his letter to the Air Force on the same day and the movie moves into Scotland where he is there on an exchange program. There he bumps into Aayat and the story continues. Unspoken feelings keep them together and when things seem to be getting serious, he gets called into the Kargil war. They lose touch all over again, till he sights her in Switzerland. But loses her again due to a misinterpretation.


They finally reunite in the backdrop of the Godhra riots, where he saves her life. And a heroic stunt later where he rescues a kid, they walk off into the sunset as a happy couple.


The whole movie didn’t require an imagination since it covered all major mishaps in India and affecting India (from Babri Masjid demolition, to Godhra massacre) with a bit of glamour factor put in. Not at all impressive for what was touted a great romantic story.


What I liked: nothing much, except the first 2 songs


Binod Pradhan’s camera work


What I did not like: Sonam’s anorexic look


Too many predictable breaks in the movie


Reasons of separation that makes you tell them to get an email id/FB account


My rating: 2/5 - avoidable

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Yashraj is back again this time with Mere Brother ki Dulhan, with Imran Khan (Kush Agnihotri), Ali Zafar (Luv Agnihotri) and Katrina Kaif (Dimple Dixit). Slated as a Rom-com and a family entertainer as usual.



The movie starts with Luv, the investment banker in London, breaking up with his girlfriend Piyali (Tara D’Souza) of 5 years. Suddenly reality strikes him and he calls up younger bro Kush to find a girl for him to be married to. Reason: when they were kids, they both liked Madhuri Dixit. So he trusts Kush’s choice in women. Kush and parents go on a bride hunting spree and finally land up with Dimple Dixit as a choice.


But here lies a shocker. He knows Dimple from his college days where she was as wild as she can be. Predictably, the family likes the alliance and they are all set to get Luv married to Dimple. With the preparations, Kush feels attracted to Dimple but is not really aware of it. Kahaani mein slight twist happens with Luv coming down to India for the wedding. And with that Kush n Dimple realize their feelings for each other but do not know how to get out of the engagement.


Putting their brains together, and infused laughter situations to sort this out is the rest of the story. And since there is no cog in the wheel, one gets created to just extend the story. All’s well that ends well.


My rating: 2.5/5 – very average


What is likable?
Kat is improving in the wardrobe and dance department


What is not likable?
The Imran of Jaane tu … and Delhi Belly is missing… Please come back soon
No memorable music
Zero sparks between Imran and Kat

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara directed by Zoya Akhtar is smooth and effortless on the viewer. It brings the entire Akhtar family together in their various specialties. Zoya with her direction, Farhan with the acting and dialogues and of course daddy Javed with lyrics.
The Akhtar movies have mostly centered around relationships, especially friendship and how vital it is to our lives. The movie is spun around Kabir Dewan (Abhay Deol), Arjun Saluja(Hrithik Roshan) and Imran (Farhan Akhtar). Kabir is in the construction business and has just proposed to an interior designer Natasha (Kalki Koechlin). As part of his bachelor party, he wants to execute the pact they had made while in college. A pact that will make them try an adventure sport of each one’s choice while not revealing it to the other till the moment, which leads them to Spain. Arjun,the financial broker, comes in reluctantly while Imran, the writer has no such hassles.
The first sport is Kabir’s choice, where they meet Laila (Katrina Kaif) a diving instructor. Arjun is not very thrilled by the choice but Laila guides him through the experience. At the end of the dive, Arjun gets very emotional and feels liberated. They soon become friends and accompany her to the Tomatina festival. Amidst all the fun and frolic, Natasha crashes into the happy party, creating a sticky situation. Laila gets Arjun out of his shell and he learns to let go…and becomes more relaxed. This sets a start to their relationship as well.
Next choice is Arjun’s which Imran is petrified of doing, but does it anyways. Post this, they set out to fulfill Imran’s choice, which is seriously life-threatening but has to be done in order to liberate themselves totally. It dawns on them that this is their only chance to live and with the friends that they are and go ahead to enjoy themselves.
The movie does remind you of DCH, but only in the friendship angle and the road trip. Each character has its own insecurities and demons to handle, but it lets you feel that they are after all human. These are the people we all are.
Through the entire story, Farhan exhibits excellent comic timing and light heartedness. Hrithik is stuck-up initially but loosens up towards the end. Abhay plays the perfect balance and is quite goofy himself. Katrina is content being a part of the story and is not in the limelight. Music by Shankar- Ehsaan - Loy is calming and soothing to the ear, and refreshing.The entire journey makes u want to pack your bags and holiday with your buddies.
My rating: 4/5 – Only for all the men in this movie – this is going to make for one of my favorite movies of the year

Delhi Belly

Delhi Belly is an Aamir Khan production and stars Imran Khan as Tashi,Vir Das as Arup and Kunal Roy Kapur as Nitin. Add to this is Shenaz as Sonia and Tashi’s girlfriend.
Tashi,Arup and Nitin are flat mates and always try to pass on responbilities of the household to each other. Even something as simple as opening the door to visitors and keeping buckets in place to fill water. And they are behind the rent schedule (nothing new). Sonia drops in to let Tashi know that he needs to meet her parents that afternoon for lunch and meanwhile drop off a package for a friend. Tashi delegates it to Nitin. Nitin meanwhile falls sick after eating some road side fare and hands over the package to Arup.
Trouble sets in when Arup switches the package with the stool sample from Nitin. The package was diamonds smuggled into the country for a local don. Tashi meanwhile gets chased and shot at by colleague Menaka’s(Poorna Jagannathan) ex-husband and ruins his newly gifted Santro.
Sonia gets kidnapped and the goons need the diamonds as ransom. Just when they had sold it and got a lot of money for it. They attempt to steal it back, in order to release Sonia. A very staged gunfight later, all the bad guys are killed and the trio with Sonia are miraculously alive. Has to be, it’s a Bollywood movie after all.
The movie is written with language that maybe alien to most of the audience. Has a gross factor in some scenes and swearing that comes matter-of-factly to the cast. It is fast paced and perfect for the multiplex audience.
My rating:3.5/5

I Am

I am is yet another Onir creation. It’s more in the critical acclaim category than for commercial. Onir casts his favorites: Rahul Bose, Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla
Movie has 4 parts, each with a story of its own.
Afia (Nandita Das) wants to have a baby desperately, only to find that her husband is going to divorce her shortly. Shattered but determined, opts of artificial insemination. Against warnings from friends, goes ahead to know the sperm donor (Purab Kohli) at a personal level. Her anxiety in knowing his personality and family, sort of makes him go on a backfoot, which is not explained well.
Megha(Juhi Chawla) returns to Kashmir to sell off her ancestral property. She meets her long time neighbours (Manisha Koirala), who wants Megha to remember her past in Kashmir. All that Megha remembers and is hurt by is the fact that her Kashmiri Pandit family were forced to flee and wants to have no connections with the place now.
Abhimanyu(Sanjay Suri) is a photographer and is a victim of child abuse. His step father is dying and his mother wants him to be home one last time. She doesn’t know the true nature of the relationship between her second husband and her son as she thinks everything was rosy from her view. Only when he gathers up the courage to go meet her, it is too late. She also doesn’t believe him on the abuse. What is portrayed is very subtle and not in your face to scandalize you.
Omar (Rahul Bose) is gay and a chance encounter with a wannabe actor (Arjun Mathur) gets him into trouble. They get caught by a cop and he ends up coughing up a huge amount of money. He doesn’t know he has been duped till he meets Arjun again at a later point in time.
The story ends with this episode without a typical climax. Nevertheless, well written and keeps you engrossed.
My rating: 3/5

Bheja Fry 2

Vinay Pathak as Bharat Bhushan is back. This time around he is on a reality show like KBC and is the lucky winner. He is very impressed with the Exec Producer of the show Ranjini (Minnissha Lamba), and kind of owes his success on the show to her. He wins a weekend cruise,and the simpleton that he is, is impressed with the hospitality. The cruise also has the fraudulent business tycoon Ajit Talwar (K K Menon) on-board, who discovers that Bharat Bhushan is an IT inspector. Now all that Ajit wants to do to Bharat Bhushan is get rid of him so that he doesn’t get caught for IT frauds.

After a series of miss-haps, Ajit and Bharat end up on a deserted island and need to find a way out. Enroute, they meet a monkey which steals Ajit’s trousers. They use his underwear as a flag to attract attention. And at nightfall, end up walking into Amole Gupte (Raghu Burman), who is obsessed with his mom, love of his life and a radio that doles out songs on AIR. He has a fixed time table and a gun and is ready to shoot down any trespasser. They try to make a phone call in his house for rescue and end up blowing it up. Somewhere in this melee, Suresh Menon (Bharat’s boss) who is righteous as ever ends up on the marooned island to arrest Ajit. By this time, they are spotted and all’s well that ends well.
The story is very sketchy and the easy humour in the Bheja Fry 1 is just missing. Ends up too stressful for on the audience, which has not accepted this well.

My rating: 2/5

Shor in the City

Produced by Ekta Kapoor and stars her brother Tusshar, is all about the seemingly normal city of Mumbai. The dark alleys exist along side the well-lit houses of the rich and famous. Righteousness exists with the wrong. Innocence co-habits with harassment and threats to life. The movie starts and ends with the 11-day Ganesha festival , with a befitting ending.
The film has 3 sub-plots: Tilak (Tusshar), who has a book publishing business, Sawan Kumar (Sundeep Kishan), a cricketer who needs money to ensure a place on the U-22 team and Abhay(Sendil Ramamurthy), an NRI entrepreneur who is setting up business in India and is being harassed by goons(Zakir Hussain).
Tilak and his 2 cronies are suddenly in the possession of a bag full of fire-arms that the cronies have picked up from a local train. They need to sell it off t make some quick money and are on the look-out for a buyer. Otherwise, he is a righteous book publisher, to the extent of threatening a famous wrietr in parting with the manuscript for exclusive publishing rights and newly-wedded man. He discovers “psychology” through “the Alchemist” and is surprised that he didn’t even know that his wife was educated. He has certain values in place and wants to let go of all nefarious activities, which his cronies think is a result of his marriage.
Sawan Kumar is an upcoming cricketer, who needs to get into the U-22 team, so that he can continue his relationship with his girlfriend, who otherwise will be married off to some guy chosen by her parents. They meet at the usual Mumbai hang-out for couples, Band-stand for some personal time and to resolve issues. He needs 10 lakhs to buy himself a place in the team and has no clue on how to get it. He approaches banks and then hits upon a plan to loot one, in a bid to make quick money
Abhay, an NRI, in Mumbai to set up a business, is harassed by goons for money to ensure his well-being and smooth functioning of business. They even follow him around and know all details of his model-girlfriend. He feels claustrophobic and cannot seem to arrive at a solution. He wants to get rid of this menace called mafia by himself, since he cannot find any other way out.
While you are trying to figure out how these three tracks are going to intertwine, the story arrives at an insipid climax and ends quite abruptly.
My rating: 3/5 – takes a while to grow on you

Ready

Ready is directed by Aneez Bazmee and the movie revolves only around Salman Khan (whose fave dialogue is Duniya mein teen cheezon ko underestimate math karna – I, me, myself). Anyone whose not a Sallu fan can watch this for sheer mindlessness.
Also in the movie is Mahesh Manjrekar, playing Sallu’s dad and who with a memory problem makes most of his dialogues “fill in the blanks”, bordering on under-the belt jokes. Anooradha Patel as the sensitive mom, who can look good only and is supportive of anything her son does, except for the fact that she wants him married to someone who has him under control. And 2 uncles and aunts fill in the family picture perfectly. Add to this, a guruji, whose words the family sticks to syllable for syllable.
Enter Asin, into their family, while escaping from her maternal uncles, who are looking to usurp her property by their plot of having her marry their respective brother-in law, but obviously she’s not interested in them. She straight away lands into Sallu’s picture perfect family and actually fits in (am not surprised)
Few squabbles, silly fights later, the uncles are brought to task in terms of their appearances and attitude towards Asin. And all’s well that ends well!!
My rating : 1/5 – not cos I’m not fond of Salman – it’s more like the masala movies that have skipped 2 decades.
Possible bright spots: Songs – Character dheela and Dinka Chika – all mass appeal.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Po is back and how… the adorable roly-poly Panda who loves his friends and food is back, this time in 3-D, making this an awesomeness experience regardless of age.
Po finds out from his Master that he has to fight Lord Shen – a peacock to save China. His dad, Ping is reluctant to let him go and in an emotional moment reveals that Po is adopted. Po with his gang Furious Five, set out on a mission to rescue China.
Before they encounter Lord Shen, they need to battle the pack of wolves as part of Shen’s army. They also discover that Kung Fu experts, Master Croc and Master Ox have been jailed in a bid to wipe out Kung Fu. They do not want to be freed citing that even if they were out, it was impossible to fight Shen who has a weapon that breathes fire and spits metal. Po manages to take on Lord Shen, who has been warned by the Soothsayer goat that a Shen is to be defeated by a warrior who is black n white.
While fighting Shen, Po is distracted by certain flashes of the peacock’s feathers and realizes that they figured in his childhood memory. At the end of round 1 of the battle, Po is severely injured and rescued by the goat who then explains the past behind Po’s traumatic childhood, which he has not yet come to terms with. His friends are captured and it looks like it’s all over.
Lord Shen, while on the way to destroy China, is suddenly confronted by a rejuvenated Po. His friends are rescued, and then a bitter battle ensues. Po dodges cannon-balls fired at him with such grace that it’s a treat to watch. All this as he has found his “inner peace”.
Good wins over evil and Po goes home to be with his dad Ping.
My rating:3.5/5….actually 4/5 – for Po’s calisthenics while displaying inner peace and the 3-D effects.

Sanctum

Posters and promos look attractive and has the biggest selling point – James Cameron. That is only one of the 2 things that seem big, other than the aerial shot of the cave which is our protagonist of the movie. Nothing else quite matches up to the mass appeal of Titanic in terms of story & emotion or the special effects of Avatar. Why was it on 3-D? dunno…can’t say..
Simple storyline…. Frank is an expert explorer who has taken up a mission to find a way from the world’s largest cave, Esa-ala in Papua New Guinea, to the sea. Accompanying him are his son,Josh (who cannot relate to the father’s greatness), Carl (millionaire who has invested in the expedition) and his girlfriend Victoria. He also has George and Jude from his earlier team, who are experts and are willing participants. Now they need to find this connection before the storm and take over the cave and the river flowing through it.
Through the so-called adventure, they need to deal with situations that test their emotional reserve along with their physical one. In the end, it triumph of the mentally strongest smartest.
What works:
You will be awe struck in certain patches – like the opening scene of the cave and the camaraderie that leads to father-son bonding.
What doesn’t:
You go in with expectations of Titanic and Avatar, and it’ll go poof…within a few minutes of screen time.
3-D was not needed
My rating:
2/5 – Maybe you can give it a miss… and the world will still be a beautiful place

Turning 30!!

Bollywood’s attempt of coming-of-age film, is what Turning 30 is all about. Think the director took the description quite seriously and makes the whole aging, youth, singlehood and homosexuality a big farce.
Naina Singh (Gul Panag) lives in a perfect world. Creative Head at an ad agency, adorable boyfriend Rishabh (Sid Makkar), gal pals- Rukhsana and Malini. Parties, late nights and a doting mother on the telephone. And she is 2 weeks from her 30th b’day. She has planned it all…Rishabh will propose to her, she will bring in her b’day at the Lonavla cottage owned by him, maybe have a party in Mumbai and her creative ideas are the best.
Alas, all that planning was in the head. Rishabh decides to marry Yamini, a family friend’s daughter just back from the US. Jamie, her rival at work takes the credit for her hardwork ,her creative ideas for a campaign fall flat and her boss is all set to fire her (since he likes his pumpkin Jamie than Naina).
She is now depressed, has only her mum n gal pals to cry to – who think a haircut helps you get over a breakup effectively. She drinks and smokes like Kal Ho na Ho… keeps telling herself that she needs to put on a brave front. What follows her recovery from the disaster she goes through, is suppose to be hilarious but fails to strike a chord with the audience, age be damned. Her masseuse thinks that she needs vibrators, and her bai is concerned that she’s single again. Mom takes her to the astrologer to find out if she will be getting married in the near future.
Enter Jai,or rather re-enter Jai(Purab Kohli) into Naina’s life. He had parted ways 4 years ago and now is a hot-shot photographer. Looks charming that Naina is attracted to him and even sleeps with him. Like a typical Indian guy, he even asks her to marry him after a night together. But she needs time to get Rishabh out of her system, poor baby. She keeps trying to call him, text him, seduce him and guilt trip his parents, just to win him back.
Finally she turns 30, and her b’day party becomes a session of all skeletons in the closet to tumble out. Rukhsana’s husband Saahil accepts he has been philandering but will give it all up for their baby. Malini confesses Ramona is her girlfriend (Malini looks very unconvinced about this scene and it shows). Jai claims to be able to sink in Naina’s dimples all over again. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnn!!
One fine day her boss decides that she cannot understand the pulse of youth and makes her work on a post-30 campaign, befitting her age. She works hard for it, only for ideas to be turned down citing risk propositions. She then quits in a huff and in a moment as pathbreaking, Malini discovers Naina’s writing abilities. Things change for the better, including where Naina sues her ex-employers for copyrights and ethics. She even completes her book and it is launched – named so predictably – Turning 30!! And she lives peacefully after. So do we!!
Director Alankrit wrote the script and directed it while he was at his creative lowest. It really is a no-brainer. You can find a Naina all over Mumbai and miss her completely…so why make a movie about it. Clichés work if presented well, not in a tacky way – booze, sex,smoking, single girls, big bad city, weird working hours, lack of family, advice from all corners of your life on settling down, the list is endless.
The only silver lining was the charming Purab Kohli as Jai with his scarves….!!
My rating: 2/5 – Wont miss much if you give this movie a miss (It may not be telecasted on Satellite TV due to its explicit adult content)