HAPPY NEW YEAR

Director Farah Khan’s Happy New Year is one of those typical Bollywood flicks that breeds on our special ability to appreciate non-sensical cinema and accept its gay abandonment of logic just because our favorite star endorses the film. If you manage to leave-your-brain-home and are desperate for cinematic therapy, then its brash humor (that the makers have leveraged upon too far certain times), is worthwhile your time.Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan), a self proclaimed loser, builds up his team of ‘losers’ to rob diamonds from a safe in Dubai in order to avenge the death of his father from Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff). To do so, he and his team participate in the world dance championship and hire a loud-mouthed pub dancer, Mohini (Deepika Padukone), as their dance teacher.

The film believes in hardcore entertainment no doubt. It is intricately designed to provide for situational comedy, fight sequences and heart winning benevolent acts. Its every frame seems adorned with captivating colors seeking visual splendor. To begin with, there is mud fight in which our hero and narrator (SRK aka Charlie), gets beaten enough to fall down mud-struck. Little did we know that this scene was incorporated to bring in water pipes (ya, that happens in fights, we just didn’t know it!) and let the cool gushing water splash and erase all the dirt to reveal Shah Rukh’ s perfectly toned body that bears the much talked about 6/8/10 pack abs! Add to it is some stolen melodrama from an old Salim-Javed screenplay declaring Charlie’s father to be a thief that angers him enough to win the fight. Khan also deliciously recites a lot of lines from his previous films perhaps because mouthing your own dialogues can be witty and funny! He also makes for the perfect male eye candy, only he has looked hotter romancing (read loving) leading ladies in those translucent shirts in his signature films.

Here by, Charlie introduces the rest of his ‘loser’ gang with every character purposely affixed with an idiosyncrasy to create more or less petty humor. Sonu Sood aka Jag with a Ceasar’s deaf ear plays a wild elephant set loose every time anyone mentions his mother's name with disgrace. His right ear fuming out smoke and shirtless-ness majorly make up his stage. What’s out rightly idiotic is a woman gawking at his well packaged abdominal muscles and signaling an amorous ‘Call me’ evidently after he has crossed her! Abhishek Bachchan aka Nandu is wasted in the film with only pieces of garish humor left to be carried off by him. His habit of occasionally puking looks as disgusting as it sounds! Boman Irani aka Tammy seems pretty relaxed standing next to our beloved superstar and letting him bear the entire film with stylish/ charismatic/ mind-blowing / *any good adjective you can think of* grace. Also titled ‘Stud’ and ‘Fatty’ at times, Boman’s gags mainly revolve around his overbearing mommy who he is childishly afraid of and of course being fat gives so much scope for additional humor in dance sequences! Vivaan Shah aka Rohan Singh plays a boring, un-cool among girls' guy. He is an exceptional hacker though so just don’t bother with how he does it because being a exceptional is a reason in itself.

Enter Deepika Padukone aka Mohini (that name so that we can hear the famous Mohini chant in a sleazy setting yet again). It is refreshing to watch her as she appears post the establishment of male characters (a lot of them!) Her stylized and sexy item number Lovely is enchanting as the song is catchy, well choreographed and visually glittery. As Mohini, a desi muffat who can’t speak English (or even Hindi) properly and is thereby charmed by Charlie’s accent, Deepika is in her acting shoes right on for the rest of the film. (We owe that to one of her previous directors, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, don’t we?) 

Charlie and Mohini’s pieces of narrative are interesting. Farah Khan makes full use of her pretty looking actors.For instance all Mohini has to do to woo the ‘otherwise uninterested in women’ Charlie, is dress up and walk in front of an audience! Their love brewing chemistry is pretty tacit with none ever directly reciting romantic lines to the other. Ofcourse there are those Shah Rukh moments but they are limited enough to disappoint romantics.

It is impressive to note that the director roped in leading ‘art house’ filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and popular music director Vishal Dadlani to play hard-to-please judges for country level dance competition. It’s the mere presence of these known personalities that invokes laughter at their comical histrionics. Charlie’s action sequence during the World Dance Championship event is stylish but uninteresting rap background music does not lend to the entertaining mood that was meant to prevail. A more Tarantino approach could have done better! The song India wale comes at the right moment when Charlie is to give a befitting reply to a mocking Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff), who has a history of backstabbing Charlie’s father, a rather trivial part played by SRK’s DDLJ ‘pops’, Anupam Kher.

Surprisingly, the film manages to bring in those patriotic goose bumps with the age old adage of India being the country of dilwale. The benevolent Charlie saves a little kid in the opposition team from injuring himself fatally to provide for ample whistle moments and Mohini, the bar dancer who values and dreams of attaining ‘izzat’, knows better than to to break hearts of people, then no matter what befall her.

Despite all that’s faulty, perhaps it is this understanding of what pleases our hearts that will render the film to flourish at the box office. And of course there is the Badshah as the Diwali bumper offer, whose charm is worth more than the ticket price any counter can ask for. Long live the King!

RATING- 2.5 stars

CHENNAI EXPRESS

Firstly, for getting the actresses' name to appear before the actor's on the credit titles- Salute!

If you get the humor, you are on track. Rohit Shetty’s sense of humor will certainly appeal to the larger section of audience, the classes might feel left out, but the masses will receive ample whistle-moments in larger than life action sequences, romance and well intended humor. Like they say, you can’t please everyone.

Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) on-boards the Chennai Express to dupe his grandmother who has asked him to immerse the ashes of his grandfather in Ramesvaram. But instead of meeting his filthy brained pals, he ends up meeting the good hearted, runaway bride, Meena (Deepika Padukone), who is the daughter of a Don in Komban village of Tamil Nadu and gets stuck up with her. The two try to escape the goons by running away.

If the script of Chennai Express is keenly observed, one may hardly find any new angle in the storyline. But the film’s presentation and its humor bring about all the difference. They provide for stuff unseen before. Watch out for the manner in which Shetty transitions from one scene to the other in several places. It is a visual delight. Of course the director has done this in his previous films; here it seems more sophisticated.

The film seems to leverage upon the fact that it has as its lead actor, none other than Shah Rukh Khan. The beginning scene in Chennai Express has been popularly termed as the spoof of SRK’s DDLJ train sequence. Well it is a spoof very well done! Just notice the change in music each time SRK lends out his hand (with all the love!) off the train. If that is not funny for you, you have missed out the Khan- Shetty sense of humor, that the film is essentially all about and have boarded the wrong train!

The script is simple and proceeds with ease. Shah Rukh Khan does a wonderful job. His comic timing is perfect and he is a visual delight on the 70mm (even otherwise). Be it action, romance (needless to say) or comedy, his experience at everything shows off with brilliance. Deepika Padukone lends a fantastic support. Her Tamilian-Hindi accent is very praiseworthy. Surely, many will try to imitate it after watching this one! The part in which they communicate by singing songs in life threatening situations is hilarious! Kudos! There is a lot of Tamil spoken undoubtedly but unexpectedly, this is used to maintain suspense in one scene.

This is a comedy film. So it’s delightful to note how it never lets go off the humor angle even amidst all the melodramatic scenes that add depth to the movie. All the Tamil to Hindi comedy is very wittily done. Kudos to the writers for innumerable lines that have a well intended sense of humor. For example, the one in which SRK says, “Tu Don ki nahi Donkey ki ladki hai!” It is funny to watch SRK hit on a lady sitting right opposite to him by singing “Tujhe dekha to…”! Also a variation in his character, Rahul, is brought about very well. The sequences in which she falls in love with him and he falls in love with her are very convincing. The latter part is scripted well with a dialogue fit to win hearts. In fact there are many hearty moments- The fight for love, the strength of love, doing the right thing by facing a problem and finally a good deed by the goon men. It’s probably nothing you haven’t seen before but these are glue elements that hook the audience.

Music and choreography are very well done. The colorful songs look beautiful on screen.

Such comedies are termed brainless, but the fact is you need intelligence to twist and turn words, sentences, languages and in the case of this one, even songs. So don’t miss the chance! Get on the train and watch out for everything up till the Lungi Dance!

RATING- 4 stars

Bombay Talkies- An Attack on Commercial Cinema!

A film that shuns romance claims to pay a tribute to the Indian Cinema. Perhaps that was meant to be funny coz the cine-makers otherwise seldom bother themselves with humor. Ok and the melodrama? Dude, shun that too coz we have had a 100 years- Enough of it, but then let’s call our compilation of short stories (some of them give you the sensational feeling of nothingness, but that’s ok) a tribute to 100 years of cinema. It didn't strike us that we could release this film a day earlier and call it a tribute to Ray, for it was his birthday- we only want to show realistic cinema but then CALL THAT A TRIBUTE TO 100 YEARS OF CINEMA. But what about the “stars”? - They are an important aspect of this industry? Don't we cast at-least a considerable number of them? Ah, don’t bother, we just have 1.5 Cr, but ya, lets do an acme song roping them in and making them mouth "Bombay Talkies" in the most effectively idiotic manner... Ah, we got Jhakaas-Aamir at centre, S-SS-SS-S- SRK and Eh, Akshay to the right and left- Jhaka-sssss-eh-chievement!

Somehow the filmmakers (exclude Johar) seem to be in awe of the lower middle class lifestyle. Alright. But what's with slaughtering entertainment? For Kashyap and Bannerjee probably, every street joker is a hero! So be it, but don't call it a tribute to Indian Cinema, for Mr. Bachchan's sake!

The offbeat genre is the most prominent connectivity among the four stories. The stories are very realistic and so much that it feels like you are spying lives onscreen. No story really bores you, considering their brevity, but few possess entertaining moments, pardon the cinematic sparks.

Karan Johar depicts the life of a married couple (Rani Mukerjee and Randeep Hooda), that changes when a gay (Saqib Salim) encounters them. Johar has done a fabulous job by picking up a story based upon an unusual theme and handling it tactfully. His piece is devoid of any artificiality. Homosexuality is a joke no more. He deals with the issue with sincerity and apt seriousness. The beautiful Rani Mukherjee deserves heaps of praise for her performance. She fits in so effortlessly that the character becomes synonymous with her. Randeep Hooda, a committed actor that he is, delivers a brilliant performance. Kudos to Johar for he is the only one who actually tackles a sensitive and controversial subject, like never before. He has pushed the boundaries for bolder, liberal and more sensible cinema to set in. He makes an effective usage of the songs- Lag Jaa Gale and Ajeeb Dasataan Hai Ye. Clearly, it is the best among the four- Watch this one.

Dibakar Bannerjee tells you a tale of a common man (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and his struggle in life to earn money and prove his worth to his daughter. It is a narration of a day from the man’s life. It does not have anything catchy in particular, but it’s realistic. Now, Banerjee’s account makes you question if realism alone can provide the stamp of good cinema?

Zoya Akhtar depicts a story of a little boy (Naman Jain) aspiring to become a dancer while his father (Ranveer Shorey) wants him to get into profession meant for men. Though pulled off well, it seems like a short story meant for children! Katrina Kaif as a white angel preaching you to follow your heart and dreams is cute, not more than that. Akhtar’s story is simple and realistic. Let’s thank her for playing Shiela Ki Jawaani on the big screen again!

Anurag Kashyap, a filmmaker par brilliance that he is, remains loyal to his tried and tested cinematic flavor. The story is about an ordinary man (Vineet Kumar) who tries to meet the legenday Amitabh Bachchan in order to fulfill his father (Sudhir Pandey)’s last wish. Kashyap’s tale has its interesting points well laid out. An other aspect of his story is his subtle depiction of an innocent rural man learning the worldly tricks of harmless deception. Its musical score has been well composed. This one’s another story worth the watch. But if you’re not quite an offbeat person, you are likely to catch a “realistic ache” by the time this one sets in!

So but we don’t have any of those high power tension driven dialogues either- Ah, that’s alright coz its Bombay “Talkies”!

RATING- 3 stars

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

Rather than relying upon a solid script, director Vishal Bharadwaj heavily banks upon craziness! A striking feature of this one is probably the frenzy momentum brought about against a rural setting.

Matru (Imran Khan) is the indebted servant of Harry Mandola(Pankaj Kapur), a wealthy business man who wants to deceive the poor farmers and purchase their land to build a factory. Chaudhri Devi (Shabana Azmi) is a greedy politician who wishes to help Harry for her own benefits. Bijli (Anushka Sharma) is a wild and carefree bird who is in love with Devi’s son, Badal.

Bharadwaj seems to have switched from realism to surrealism. He does not bother to justify the events or character-changes unfolding on screen. He clings on to a sense of madness that requires no justification. It seems like he wanted his cinema to portray one hell of a mad-house radiating laughter, but unfortunately his sense of humor, runs out of novelty. His comic scenes are limited to histrionics of a drunken man, sting of honey bees, office hour flirting between the aged, throwing cow-dung and calling a fat woman dressed in pink, “gulabi bhains”! Further disappointing is how these elements seem to have been forced into the script.

Pankaj Kapur’s character has been sketched interestingly. Note how well he steers the drunken act. But after a point of time, you get bored of the dragging humor. A bearded Imran plays his part well. He seems to manage it all effortlessly. The energetic Anushka Sharma is good, but again she doesn't do things any differently from what she has done before. Given her talent, it is more versatility that is expected of her. The veteran Shabana Azmi shines in parts but disappointingly ends up making a caricature of her character. Or probably that was meant to be a satire designed to induce humor!

The movie turns senseless towards the end which makes you see the brainlessness of it all! This one’s a light hearted drama not asking itself to be taken seriously. As for the director, he seems less inspired by Shakespeare (he's the man who made Maqbool and Omkara afterall) and more by the likes of comedy filmmakers. Now that’s some change!

The pink cow act shall remain the movie’s novelty.

RATING- 2 stars

Khiladi 786

“Khiladi is back” shouts out the male lead of the movie in his famous husky toned voice as he glides with the speed of light. His histrionics do induce a slight sense of humor despite a ridiculous, irritating and sickening screenplay.

Fake cop Bahattar Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a local looter with Robin Hood-like characteristics. He also desperately wants to be married. Match maker Mansukh (Himesh Reshamiya) brings in the proposal of a nice brat, Indu (Asin) who is the sister of TT (Mithun Chakraborty), a thug. The to-be in-laws’ fake their identities pretending to be cops.

A no-brainer film needs to have brainy dialogues is what the film teaches you. Heavily inspired from its genre of Bolly-movies, it unabashedly steals fragments and pieces of storylines and settings. Its humor is plain stupid and nearly every scene celebrates the stupidity. The African- Canadian- Chinese family track is not funny! Add to it all is Himesh Reshamiya’s performance that does a good job at sabotaging his own film.

Akshay Kumar with his 786 ka haath (whatever that meant!) is like your reward for bearing with the ongoing absurdity. Not that he does anything he hasn’t done before but that he does it with so much dexterity that missing out to blink would not be a bad idea. His screen presence, style, attitude, spirit, dialogues and looks ward off the horrifying effect that director Ashish Mohan’s work otherwise probably intends to create. The horror here is the shock one receives witnessing the heights of crap. Mr. Khiladi on the other hand crosses heights of awesomeness ~ that’s the irony!

Hardly any other performance is mention-worthy. Mithun Chakraborty gets into his Housefull 2 mode again. Johny Lever is given dialogues that fail to register. Asin looks pretty and does well. Music is average. The best song is ‘intelligently’ placed towards the end along with the credit titles.

You have to be a die-hard Akshay fan in order to gulp down this absurd wave cinema. Don’t complain because Tera pyaar pyaar pyaar rhymes with Hookah Bar!

RATING – 1.5 stars

Talaash

Bringing alive a world in itself is what director Reema Kagti manages to do with an appreciable panache.

Inspector Shekhawat Suri (Aamir Khan) investigates a case of a mysterious car accident of a filmstar. Suri is also entangled in a complicated private life after having lost his son in past. The incident leaves his wife, Roshni (Rani Mukherjee) in psychological distress as the couple find it hard to forget the mishap. Rosie (Kareena Kapoor), a prostitute lures Suri while helping him in his search.

Tinged with thriller-flavor is a sequence of an unbelievably shocking car accident. A high speeding car takes off a sudden turn for no reason, cuts through the pavement and splashes down straight into the sea, causing an impassioned death. Here on, no looking back. Sudden high paced movements with thundering music recur with a comfortably unforgivable disposition. An ambience of local prostitutes and their dealers sets in contrasting with the A-graded filmstars’s world. Soon the police and his team get down to work as the case clumsily involves the men in brown to polish their grey cells and find link between the two.

The director seems to relish upon a non-existent but yet prevalent chemistry between her leads. Watch out for the glamorous Kapoor trying to entice a conscientious Khan in a virtual amorous encounter. Few apt dialogues and some reticence do the magical trick with near perfection.

A psychological angle that is an amalgam of Suri’s personal and professional life churns mind with curiosity and brings out the essence of the story very well. The writers do a fabulous job of balancing, amalgamating and associating.

Certain segments do seem borrowed possessing a Hollywoodish blend while others leverage upon factors that inevitably entertain. The film does not stipulate any novel message to its audience either. Yet its meticulous screenplay and conviction enable it to do justice with its genre. Certain scenes deserve an applause- for instance, the one in which a disabled man jumps off a train and gets on the shutter of the platform and the one in which Inspector Suri performs the burning ceremony paying his respects.

With a suspicion inducing melodic soundtrack and some very good performances, the thriller ends up being gripping and convincing.

RATING- 4 stars

Jab Tak Hai Jaan

Jab Tak Hai Jaan has a soul only it does not touch! Yash Chopra’s gigantic romantic venture fails to sustain attention and takes a dip more than often.

Samar Anand (Shah Rukh Khan) is a fearless soldier working for the bomb defusing squad of the Indian army. Akira (Anushka Sharma) gets hold of Samar’s diary after the latter saves her from drowning. The diary introduces her to a ten years younger Samar who was in love with Meera (Katrina Kaif). Meera, a billionaire's only daughter too falls for Samar, a waiter. During an accident, she bargains her love life for Samar's life to God. Samar now puts the Almighty  to test by working in the bomb squad. He also secretively desires to forget his past as time does not heal his pain.

Aditya Chopra does an average job with the story. There is sincerity and love but not too many novelties. For instance ~ two accidents, memory loss, memory comes back ~ Get back to that zamaane ki filme!  There are certain good elements no doubt but the trite expressions vouch for a better screen presence.  Director Yash Chopra too gives equal weightage to the the low and high quotients of the script. Had he relished upon the strengths and given upon lots of melodrama, the film could have turned better. 

Some songs are lengthy and could have been edited better. A distinguishing stand-out-point of the film is Samar's conflict with God for it is treated well almost carrying a nostalgia of Chopra's Deewar. The movie heavily rests upon this spiritual quest with thankfully convincing dialogues. Romance seems to have been contemporized considering it is a Shah Rukh Khan film. With the director not giving upon his old stratagem of sentimental drama, it is perhaps sad he had to alter his ways when it came to romance. Further, King Khan’s looks are enough to generate passion and intensity. A King of Hearts badly played!

Anushka enjoys the clichés given to her. She gets into modes that we have already seen her play before. Katrina does an appreciable job and her dance oozes oomph. Neetu Singh is as fabulously natural as ever.

The film does a great deal to its leading actor Shah Rukh Khan. Perhaps the Chopra's are so used to having him around that they don't bother to leverage upon his super-stardom. Maybe the benevolent SRK doesn't mind, but it hurts sentiments of his countless fans. Several times, he is given stereotyped scenes and unfortunate dispositions. He is made to compromise upon his signature statements. Further added is a scene in which Meera refuses to romance him. Now we have seldom seen the superstar get romantically rejected. What novelty!

Nevertheless, Shah Rukh exudes charm and looks great. Pardon the melodramatic elasticity to watch him in the Indian Army attire for he carries it off just too well. His comic scenes click. Watch him call Akira, Kurosawa! 

Its music suits the movie well. Rahman’s musical beats are fantastic with pleasant songs. Here, not everyone knows Punjabi, should be a point noted. Saans is a beautiful creation of Gulzar. Alas the execution of some songs further slows the pace of an improperly edited screenplay.

The latter half gets too busy compensating Akira for her loss of love. Her climax speech turns into an endless preach. Also the ending is not far from predictability. SRK-Katrina’s chemistry is limited to a few scenes. 

No magic! Harsh upon SRK fans!

RATING- 2.5 stars