Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Movie Review- The Other Viewpoint

Let me start with a confession, this isn’t a regular movie review that I’m attempting. By now I think quite a few people have already done that (including on PFC) and what I’m trying now is to share my feelings about the movie. So here I go on this personal account of how I look at Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai(OUATIM from hereon).

Let me start off by asking all of you a question- what was your expectation (if any) when you first heard of the movie or started seeing the promos? In my case I would say that the movie had me reasonably excited. And let me explain why. To start with I have admired Milan Luthria’s work and felt that given the right concept and the right cast in hand, he can pull off an entertaining film. So for everyChori Chori and a Hattrick, he also has a Kachche Daage or a Taxi No.9211 to talk about.

And then the subject itself appealed to me- the tale of two of the so called powerful men in the city once known as Bombay- Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim. I somehow had the feeling that this will not be a movie in the RGV style of gangster movies like a Satya or a Company. Rather I had the feeling that this would be a total retro film with the movie turning to recreate the pulp entertainers of the 70’s & the 80’s. Unlike some of the others I was also looking forward to seeingAjay Devgan and Emran Hashmi in the characters modeled on Haji Mastan and Dawood respectively.

While Ajay has proven on numerous occasions that he is a wonderful actor and has done a gangster movie like Company, Emran looked like the dark horse to me. I have unlike a lot of people always felt that there existed a decent actor within the person who is known more as a ‘serial kisser’. This opinion has been proved right in his recent films like Awarapan, Jannat & Tum Mile. Also when I started hearing the songs of the movie, I was quite pleased withPritam’s work.

So with all these things in mind I looked forward to the release of the film and kept my date with the film on the Friday it released (July 30th). Deliberating upon the film now I’m trying to think of how the movie shaped up to my expectations and I realize that overall it was a fairly credible effort from Milan Luthria and his team. I thought the retro look of the 70’s and the 80’s were well captured and I would certainly give credit to Nitin Desai’s art direction and the cinematography of Aseem Mishra for the same.

OUATIM tries hard not to fall into the dark realistic gangster movie mould seen in so many movies like Satya,Company,Vaastav and so many more. Here in I believe is a victory of sorts for the movie. If the movie had been shown as another dark, realistic RGV kind of underworld movie, this would have been just another movie in that genre. And we would all be saying- “oh!no, not another gangster movie”. For me the music of Pritam in terms of both the songs and the BGM worked perfectly with the mood of the movie. Be it a romantic Pee Loon or Tum Jo Aaye or the totally retro Parda, the songs make a definite impact.

Which takes me now to the cast and their performances. Both the heroinesKangna Ranaut and Prachi Desai were decent but then their roles didn’t have much scope. But I have no complaints here as all along it was touted as a saga of two men and that being the case how much of depth do we hope for female characters in such films. For that matter there’s hardly any gangster/underworld film ( Anurag Basu’s Gangster : A Love Story is a remarkable exception ) which plays a lot of thrust on female character development. Ajay Devgan-the star was very much visible throughout the film and right from his look (suave whites throughout the film) to his swagger and the dialogue delivery ( kudos to Rajat Arora the writer ), everything had style in it.

Ah!coming to Emran Hashmi, what do I say? While he was not quite the show stealer, he certainly did pull off the character of Shoaib pretty well. Unfortunately he does not get much scope in the 1st act of the film and it’s only towards the end of the 2nd act that he really gets going. Randeep Hooda as the cop was earnest but his narration of the flow of events was looking very unclear in terms of the way it was happening. None of the other characters anyway made any strong impact.

Having said all this I certainly don’t want to give out the impression that it’s a great film or a perfect film. Far from it , but it’s a film which has fulfilled my expectations to a great extent. The climax appeared too sudden and abrupt and thus hampered the flow of the film. While I don’t have any issue with the way the story ends, I still feel there should have been a stronger (and a lengthier) pre-climax which leads to the climax.

For all those who have various complaints ( some people have an issue with the dialogue mannerism in this film, some people feel it wasn’t too gritty and realistic, some people feel it was an over the top film )with the film I do have something to say.Ultimately what did you expect from this film? If you weren’t expecting a pulp entertainer which was modeled on the films of the 70’s and the 80’s and bringing out the retro look intact then I guess you went in to watch the wrong movie. For the others the movie is a fairly engaging watch. As I write this I realize that the movie is slowly picking up at the box office and is gathering a favorable response from the audience. Lets just wait and see how much this rewind journey of ‘Mumbaai’ gets appreciated by the masses.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/once-upon-a-time-in-mumbaai-movie-review-the-other-viewpoint/

Tanu Weds Manu Movie Review :Sometimes nice guys do get the girl

This post is dedicated to my friends N and M who having been through a lot in their life, found each other (again?) and have just recently got married.

The process of getting married can be exciting, funny and even irritating at times. All these depend on how you are involved in the whole process. Those of you who have probably got “settled” by your family’s standards would probably understand what I’m trying to say. So how often do we hear of people finishing a post graduation from a prestigious institution or getting a good job being faced with pressure from family to get married immediately? I’m sure the numbers would be huge and probably many of us have faced it as well. Now whether one succumbs to the pressure straight away or battles it ahead to chart his/her own course depends purely on the individual. So why am I talking so much about marriage and associated stuff? Well once you watch (or rather while watching itself) Tanu Weds Manu ( TWM from hereon )you just cannot help but think along these lines.

1.Image 1- you are far away from your family/motherland and its probably old nostalgic Hindi film music that keeps you going and helps you stay connected 2.Image 2- small town India (in this case North India- U.P and Punjab to be more specific) being showcased for all their glory 3.Image 3- you fall in love with a girl at first sight without even sharing any dialogue with her, you know its strange but its also true 4.Image 4- you go through the ritual of “ladki dekhna” to keep your family happy but mentally you know that you are putting on an act, since your heart is no more with you 5.Image 5- life can be made a lot more interesting at times by people around you, with you and those who care for you

If you are the type who can relate to most of the images mentioned above then TWM is just the film for you. Before I elaborate more on the images let me briefly talk about the movie itself. By now all of you must be aware that TWM is all about Tanu (Kangna Ranaut), a girl who believes life is cool only when you rebel and Manu ( R.Madhavan ) , a doctor from the U.K who is on vacation in India. Well his parents feel he’s been living alone for rather too long and hence want him to get married soon. So “officially” Manu and his parents go across to Kanpur to meet Tanu and her family. Manu doesn’t actually talk to Tanu but falls in love with her nevertheless. But just as the whole family is all set to take the blessings of Mata at Vaishno Devi the bubble bursts as Tanu tells Manu that she likes someone else and cannot get married to Manu.

The action then shifts to Punjab as Manu goes there with his trusted aide/friend/companion Pappi (Deebak Dobriyalat his effervescent best) to attend the wedding of another friend,Jassi ( Eijaz Khan ). So for all of us who have been watching romantic movies from time immemorial, its not difficult to fathom what happens next. However having said that I’d say that there is still a lot of earnestness in the film when it comes to showing the story of Tanu and Manu. The 1st half is interesting, funny and has some really wonderful moments. When Maddy tells Jimmy Shergill on the rooftop that he’s got nothing against marrying his sister but his heart is not into the prospect of getting married, I could feel what Maddy was going through. Also the scene at Vaishno Devi as Deebak Dobriyal implores Maddy to break the “news” to his folks will put a smile on everyone’s face.

So for all these itself the director Aanand Rai and the writer Himanshu Sharma deserve a lot of credit. Aanand Rai also deserves credit for capturing the nuances of small town India be it a Kanpur or a Kapurtala very well. What’s also interesting is the choice of actors in the film. It’s refreshing to see veterans like K.K.Raina and Rajendra Gupta essay the roles of the fathers of Manu and Tanu respectively. These are 2 actors whom we have gone on to look up to over the years and yet who continue to appeal to us and are not over-exposed. Rajendra Gupta doesn’t speak much in the film but nevertheless conveys a lot through his expressions. When K.K.Raina explains his feeling of pride on what his son is doing or when he conveys that he understand his son’s feeling, you root for this character. What do I say about Deepak Dobriyal who thankfully has been given a role, which is right up his sleeve. As Pappi, Deepak is completely in control and remains in character right till the end. Also to be singled out for sure is Swara Bhaskar as Payal, the friend of Tanu and the one who gets married to Jassi.

Kangna Ranaut may have her share of detractors but I felt she did a fairly decent job as Tanu. The role of Manu required Maddy to underplay himself and he did that wonderfully well.The film has an amazing soundtrack composed by Krsna, with lyrics by Rajshekar and the songs are already very popular. Chirantan Das’s camera work acts as the right foil to the narrative. Having said all this does this imply that it’s the perfect romantic film? Of course not- the film has its fair share of flaws as well. For a film that starts off rather well and leaves you completely smiling at the interval point the 2nd half, especially the later half of it is a dampener. Probably the biggest culprit here could be the way the character of Raja (Jimmy Shergill) has been conceived. Towards the end you do wonder as to why the flow has been disturbed this way. Though I’d not prefer to compare I’d still say that the film lacks the consistency that a film like Band Baaja Baaraat (a film that I feel is a benchmark now for films of this genre) has. Having said that I’d still say that it’s a worth a watch as the positives far outnumber the negatives.

Tanu Weds Manu- of course unlike poles attract

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/tanu-weds-manu-movie-review-sometimes-nice-guys-do-get-the-girl/

Game Movie Review: More of a shame

What happens when you have a well-known ad filmmaker and a producer duo known to be sensible in their choice of projects, come together? Added to it you know that the film also boasts of an interesting star cast and has a budget that’s certainly not bad at all. Common sense would usually make you expect the project to be at least something that can easily be described as ‘safe’ right? You would be right most of the time maybe but this weekend with ‘Game’ conventional wisdom goes for a toss as we are cruelly treated to a very bad April Fool’s joke.

Director Abhinay Deo has been in the news of late with his 2 movies- Gameand Delhi Belly getting ready almost in quick succession. With producers- Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani around and with a star cast comprising of Abhishek Bachchan, Kangna Ranaut, Boman Irani, Jimmy Shergill, Shahana Goswami and introducing Sarah Jane Dias to Bollywood (she was earlier seen in the Tamil movie- Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai), one expected a time pass film at the least. With 3 days of its theatrical run over and judging by the box office performance so far (now please don’t blame the WC finals, Vashu Bhagnani’s F.A.L.T.U released the same day has done far, far better so far), I’m sure the entire team of Game must be wondering who will take the blame.

For those wondering what the story is (by now I’m sure most people are aware anyway) let me tell you that the film starts with Kabir Malhotra ( Anupam Kher ), a billionaire tycoon inviting 4 people to his island home in Samos, Greece. The four people include Neil Menon (Abhishek Bachchan), a casino owner in Istanbul, Deepak Kapoor (Jimmy Shergill), a leading Bollywood actor, O.P Ramsay (Boman Irani ), a Prime Ministerial candidate in Thailand and Tisha Khanna, a journalist in London. Malhotra startles all of them by disclosing some hidden secret connecting all of them together. He even mentions that he’s called the International Vigilance Squad (IVS) to come over the next day and arrest Neil, Ramsay and Deepak for their wrong doings. Since they are all trapped they reluctantly stay over in the island. But that’s when Malhotra is found dead in his study.

Enter Sia Agnihotri ( Kangna Ranaut ) from the IVS and the lame game begins. To be honest there are a few things which are note-worthy in the film. Shot across eye-catching locations in Istanbul, Bangkok, London and Greece (apart from Mumbai of course), the film’s cinematography by Karthik Vijay does do justice to the locales. The opening credits roll down slickly and the slickness shows throughout the film. But these elements are too little to make an impact that’s enough to make you forget the issues associated with the film. The choice of the subject in itself (story and screenplay credited to Althea Delmas Kaushal) is not something that one can appreciate. Reminding you of Soham Shah’s Luck on one hand and so many whodunits otherwise, the subject would put a lot of mystery lovers into a tizzy with such a dull, not so inspiring theme. Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s And There Were None, this one doesn’t do any justice to the source of inspiration.

Then there are the mandatory twists and turns coming at regular moments during the film, but none of them really surprise you actually. So when Neil Menon makes a turnaround and mentions his real identity to Sia Agnihotri, half the audience seems to have already realized it and anyways no one seemed to really care for it. That in it self shows how badly Abhinay Deo has failed in his attempt to hook the audience. People fly all the way to Greece on just receiving a letter- ah! I wish life were as simple though. And what’s with the constant reference to Samos as if its Patna or Mysore and everyone is aware of the place? Watching the film would make you feel its easy to break into the office of the forthcoming Prime Minister in a foreign country or hop about continents without ever troubling the law enforcing agencies even a little bit. I can go on and on about the loopholes in the film, but then the list would be long and probably endless . Music by Shankar- Ehsaan- Loy again is not of the type that one can ideally accept in a film like this. Chances are unlikely that one would go on to remember any of the songs after the movie is out of the theatres (which shouldn’t be long btw).

Talking about characters- Boman Irani tends to go a bit overboard in his antics as the wannabe PM, while Jimmy Shergill’s character is completely half baked and has nothing much to do. Shahana Goswami’s character seems to be deliberately shown as slightly mysterious, what with her addiction to liqour etc but nothing of that is explained in detail and she just hangs in there somewhere in the plot. Gauhar Khan does a decent job and for Anupam Kher, such roles do not challenge him in any ways. Kangna Ranaut plays the angry young lady cop who simply throws her weight around her deputy. With an organization titled IVS and with Kangna throwing more focus on her looks than her accent, you know how it would go all the way. Surprisingly for someone who starts so aggressively after the turnaround by Abhishek , she allows him to completely occupy centre stage and gladly steps aside.

Sarah Jane Dias, a former Miss India and Channel [V] VJ was being highlighted enough in the promos but truth be said, doesn’t really have much to do in the film. Especially with hardly any dialogues given one cannot say much about her in the film. But maybe all the pre-release talk about her should result in her getting noticed more in the coming days. But pray why did she have to wear that hideous looking wig in the Mehki Mehki song, which was her showcase in the film? Coming to Abhishek Bachchan, well he seems to have tried to be as natural as he could be in the film, what with the reference to his love for European Soccer (Chelsea ), tongue in cheek way of talking etc. But all that would have probably been noticed and maybe even appreciated, if the film in itself was endearing enough.

At the end when you walk out after the movie is over, you ask yourself how did this April Fool joke of a movie get made in the 1st place and if the people associated with the film are so blind or thoughtless.

Bottomline- Game is definitely a lame excuse of a film that’s a shame considering the people behind it.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/game-movie-review-more-of-a-shame/

Ek Niranjan- a formula film from the Puri Jagannath Factory

After Bujjigadu-Made in Chennai, the combination of director PuriJagannath and hero Prabhas is back again with Ek Niranjan. This one bears the stamp of typical mass hero formula films in Telugu, something that Puri Jagannath seems to relish following the stupendous success of his Pokiri. The plot is fairly simple. The movie begins with Chotu (Prabhas) getting separated from his family during his childhood as he is abducted by Chidambaram (Makrand Deshpande). Chidambaram forces Chotu to become a beggar just as he has forced a lot of other children too. One day on a tip off from Chotu the police arrests Chidambaram but Chotu continues to keep in touch with Chidambaram in jail as he knows that he is the only link to his family.
As Chotu grows up he goes on to make a living as a police informer who turns in people wanted by the police. On one such occasion when he is on the lookout for a gangster Kailash, ( Mukul Dev ) wanted for the murder of the CM, he crosses the path of Johny Bhai ( Sonu Sood ), an underworld don. Chotu also falls in love with Sameera (Kangna Ranaut at her awful best) who is a guitar teacher and Sameera’s brother again happens to be someone that Chotu is after. So what happens to Chotu? Does he unite with his family? Does he win his love? Are there any twists in the tale? The rest of the movie answers all the questions in routine customary style.

I told you Kangna plays a guitar teacher
Talking about Puri Jagannath, he is somebody who has made some interesting movies like Idiot, Amma Naana O Tamila Ammayi, Super etc before the formula bug bit him hard with Pokiri. That Pokiri was a trendsetter is by now known to all and following the success of Pokiri he seems to be following the same path with his movies like Desamuduru, Chiruta, Bujjigadu-Made in Chennai and Neninthe. Neninthe was supposed to be an inside story of how the Telugu film industry works. But in trying to balance realism with escapism, somewhere the objective got lost.
Going back to Ek Niranjan, Puri Jagannath seems to be suffering from the Pokiri hangover in a major way. If it was Mahesh Babu as Pandu trying to act uber cool in Pokiri here it is Prabhas doing the same in Ek Niranjan. You had a villain Ali Bhai ( Prakash Raj ) with some kickass dialogue baazi in Pokiri and and here you have Johny Bhai ( Sonu Sood relishing his role with gusto ) doing the same. Ok there was one child in Pokiri and here you have a handful of children. The similarities do not end here. There are lots of sequences again which give you a feeling of déjà vu.
Prabhas seems to really thrive in these roles and he has come up with a more than passable performance. The less said about Kangna Ranaut, the better. She has probably never looked more awful on screen than in this movie (whom do we blame for this?). Tanikella Bharani, Makrand Deshpande,Posani Murali Krishna and Mukul Dev are ok. But the real hero of the movie according to me is none other than Sonu Sood. As Johny Bhai, he plays the don with a sadistic streak brilliantly with a comic touch. The dialogues,expressions and the costumes suit him very well. In fact the dialogues between Sonu Sood and his accomplice,Bhramaji are the main highlights of the movie. Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil and Venu Madhav have been used just as props.

Are who's the actual hero?
The music by Mani Sharma is decent with the pick of the lot being the opening song – “ Amma ledu, nana ledu, akka chelli tambi leru, ek niranjan” . What takes you by surprise is the last song though- “are rey narthana thara “which is a sort of tribute to Michael Jackson with some of MJ’s footage playing in the background as well. Having said all this I am feeling a little tempted to think of what would have been in Puri Jagannath’s mind when he was conceptualizing the movie and given below is a sample check list that he must have used-
1.A cool entry scene for the hero with a nice energetic song to follow ( how else would we cheer the hero enthusiastically on his entry )2.Back story for the hero ( so that there’s an element of intrigue )3.A Villain with brilliant sense of dialogue delivery and comic timing4.Emotional quotient to be used at the right time with use of family sentiment5.Heroine who is shown as vulnerable and fragile to whom the hero loses his heart instantly.6.At least couple of songs to be shot overseas (Well we are teaching our song and dance routine to the outside world)7.Comedy brigade with all the big names included ( so what if they hardly have any screen time )8.The mandatory chases and fights ( with statutory rope shots ) for the desired effect9.Item song10.Punch Dialogues

Mass factor- fight in Bangkok
Well I can go on and on but let me stop my sample check list with the main elements listed and I can safely tell you all that in most of these elements Puri Jagannath doesn’t disappoint over here in Ek Niranjan . In spite of the extreme déjà vu factor the movie is still time pass fare for most part of it when suddenly the movie shifts its base to Bangkok (probably the producer Aditya Ram wanted to reward everyone with a foreign trip) and things suddenly look forced. Even the dialogues seem to get laid back over here. Sample this – when Sonu Sood tells his goons that they should rush to Bangkok and when Bhramaji asks him how he can be so sure that Prabhas is in Bangkok, the reply from Sonu Sood is“Lets go and search, if we don’t find him I’ll settle for a Thai massage instead “ . All said and done if you are yearning for some good old masala movie due to the hangover from “Wanted “, Ek Niranjan is not bad for a one time watch. But its high time Puri Jagannath reinvents himself otherwise he would continue to make clones of Pokiri.

Originally published in PFC.Check it out here-http://passionforcinema.com/ek-niranjan-a-formula-film-from-the-puri-jagannath-factory/

Kudos to Raaz-2, Slumdog Crorepati & Dev D

The 1st Qr of 2009 is over and while the good news is that there was a lot of variety in the kind of Bollywood movies released, in terms of success there were only 3 movies which can be actually called successful in the true sense. The range of movies varied from mainstream biggies like CC2C, Jai Veeru, Aa dekhen Zara etc, small movies like Firaaq,Barah Aana,The Stoneman Murders etc and movies which fall in between the mainstream biggies and the small movies in terms of budget and the number of release centre’s like Dev D,Gulaal,Luck By Chance etc. In all there were some 30 odd regular releases in the quarter (taking only the straight listed films in consideration and avoiding the so called unlisted movies and the various soft porn and dubbed movies the actual count is 31) and the actual successful films are just 3-Raaz-The Mystery Continues ( Raaz-TMC hereon), Slumdog Crorepati(hereon referred to as SDC ) and Dev D.
No this post is not a review of any of these 3 movies. We have already discussed the merits and demerits of these 3 movies in length. But yes considering these movies represent the successful 10 % (of the entire lot that released in Q 1’09), we need to not only appreciate these movies for their success but also briefly look at how & why they have been successful. Lets first talk about Raaz-2. Well we all now the kind of films Vishesh Films has been making – typically small/medium budget kind of movies with good music. This movie again did not prove to be an exception in this respect. Director Mohit Suri had already shot into prominence with movies like Zeher, Kalyug, Woh Lamhe & Awarapan and the movie had the trusted Emran Hashmi along with Kangna Ranaut ( of course it also had Adhyayan Suman ). Right from the beginning the promos showed that the movie had great music ( Raju Singh,Gaurav Dasgupta, Toshi,Sharib Sabri) and the catchy title reminded people of the highly successful Raaz.
So the people went at large and had a good time watching Raaz-TMC. Of course not many people felt it was really scary and many even felt that the climax was tame. But all said and done the solid promotion worked and Vishesh Films had a hit in their hands. On the day that Raaz-TMC released, there was another movie that got released- SDC. The Hindi version of SDM which released alongside across the country did quite well initially as the movie already had got noticed due to its popularity abroad and the series of awards it had started to sweep everywhere. But the actual success of the movie got noticed only much later i.e. after SDM swept away the Oscar Awards. In fact not only did shows of the movie get increased in most centre’s, in a lot of places where the movie had completed its initial run it was re-released and made even more money.
And then we finally come to Dev D, a movie which had a lot of fan following among the youth but was not considered to be all that powerful to make a strong impact at the box office. But surprisingly the movie not only managed to attract the youth, but it also managed to gain in popularity as days passed on. The results are there to see. It’s become a multiplex hit and as I write this post, the movie has crossed 50 days and is still playing in select multiplexes across the country. Considering that these days most of the movies make the maximum money in the first week of its release and that its tough for even a mainstream blockbuster to survive more than a few weeks, the success of Dev D is all the more commendable.
So these 3 movies had their audience and were helped by the kind of promotion it had. Be it a catchy title and a hit song like ‘Mahi Mahi’ or the Oscar Awards or ‘Emotional Atyachar’, each of these movies had something in them which helped the target audience identify with the movie and enable the movie’s success at the box office. That brings to the question- were all the other 28 releases bad? Well certainly not, some of them were definitely good and even critically appreciated but where they failed was in connecting to the audience. All said and done a 10 % success ratio is very scary indeed for the industry. We must need more and more successes both in the form of big & small/medium movies. After all a big movie’s success enables the production banner to fund many more small/medium movies. With the producer’s vs multiplexes strike supposedly starting from April 4th, there aren’t too many releases scheduled in April. Let’s hope the forthcoming releases in May and June turn out to be good and most of them manage to connect to their target audience and become successful.
Note- I have considered SDC as a Hindi version of SDM & not a dubbed movie as otherwise the success % falls even below 10 %.Moreover this post is only about box office success and not about how good or bad a film is.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/kudos-to-raaz-2-slumdog-crorepati-dev-d/