Golmaal 3 Movie Review : Thodi Masti, Thodi Dhoom

For those who have seen Golmaal 1 & Golmaal 2 ( Golmaal Returns ) it is not difficult to understand what to expect from the 3rd part of the franchise. Whether one likes it or not Golmaal 3 (G -3 from here on) is certainly a film that has been made with a lot of care; care to ensure that it caters to its target segment among the audience. Going by the way G- 1 & G-2 performed at the box office it is also clear that the target segment constitutes the majority of the audience. And when you have a festive period (Diwali) as the time for release, things look all the more promising. Especially so when history has already shown what a potent combination this franchise can be during the festive reason (remember G-2 released during Diwali in 2008?).

Before I go on about G-3 its time for a confession. I had found G-1 to be reasonably funny (though it was partially inspired by Priyadarshan’s Malayalam movie- Kakkakuyil). So much so that I expected G-2 to be good as well but then all the hype had got onto me as I felt that the movie was nothing but cashing in on the success of G-1 and having nothing concrete in terms of a plot apart from just having a series of gags. So when G-3 was being promoted I had a strange feeling of deja-vu and kept telling myself – “Oh! No not again for Heaven’s sake”. But having decided for myself that it’s gonna be a filmy diwali as usual, I still decided to go ahead and watch it.

So what is G-3 all about? For starters its on one hand got similarities to Basu Chatterjee’s Khatta Meetha ( 1978 ) but thankfully Rohit Shetty the director of G-3 ( and the entire trilogy ) has molded the premise in his own style and made it look like a fresh approach in itself. G-3 is all about 2 families living somewhere in Goa. Pritam ( Mithunda ) has 3 good for nothing sons- Madhav ( Arshad Warsi ), Lucky ( Tushar Kapoor ) and Laxman ( Kunal Khemu ) who keep getting into trouble for their various ways of trying to make easy money. Geeta ( Ratna Pathak Shah ) has 2 sons, Gopal ( Ajay Devgn ) & Laxman ( Shreyas Talpade ). Daboo (Kareena Kapoor) is the neighbor and good friend of Geeta’s family.

Circumstances make the two sets of brother’s rivals as they keep bumping into each other by opening the same kind of business ventures in the same place as well. That’s when Pritam meets Geeta and both of them are shocked as long back both of them were in love but couldn’t unite as fate intervened . Daboo is the only when who realizes the truth and thus sets about trying to get both of them married now. While both Pritam and Geeta are reluctant since they know that their sons can’t stand each other, Daboo’s persisntence pays off and ultimately the middle aged couple do end up getting married. But then bedlam sets in as each set of brother’s end up doing whatever they can to make life miserable for the other set. What happens from thereon is what the rest of the film is all about.

Oh! And by the way there are also a whole of host of other characters who make their presence in the film and lend their services to the ensuing confusion in the proceedings. Some of the characters repeat their act or presence from the earlier films in the trilogy and some of them are new. But most of them have been sketched well. While watching the film one of the first things I realized was that in terms of a plot and the ability to keep the audience engrossed, G-3 scores way above G-2 comfortably. Yes some of the gags sound silly and make you even feel surprised at times as to whether you are really watching all this. But to be honest you can be assured of one thing- you’ll certainly be laughing aloud at a lot of places while watching G-3. And one of the other differences visible in this film is that Rohit Shetty has steered clear of the mundane requirements like a routine romantic track (except a hint of romance between Kareena & Ajay there’s nothing specifically shown), unnecessary songs, a regular villain etc.

What’s also interesting is that it’s not the actual Golmaal gang which contributes to the fun, but it’s a host of others who really deserve the credit for making the movie watchable. In fact the Golmaal gang of men are just there to show a continuation of the franchise and try to sound funny thanks to their quirks like for example- Ajay Devgn is shown as an extremely hot headed guy, Shreyas stammers, Kunal keeps using idiotic phrases while talking, Tushar of course continues doing what he did in G-1 & G-2 while Arshad keeps playing the prankster. So who are the scene stealers then if it’s not the boys? Well to start with Johnny Lever as Puppy Bhai is simply outstanding as he plays a gang leader with a Ghajini like short term memory loss problem. Also rocking is Mithunda as Pritam and the romance shown between Mithun and Ratna is simply fabulous. Mithunda’s ‘I am a Disco Dancer’ jig & Prem Chopra’s cameo make us feel nostalgic.

Also deserving applause is Sanjay Mishra as Daga one of the 2 main henchmen of Johnny Lever. As a guy who misspells English words, he truly comes into his elements towards the end of the film. Just when you think that the movie is about to end at around the 2 hr stage the movie just side tracks and heads on towards a slightly lengthier ending. While you do wonder if this was indeed necessary it is certainly creditable of Rohit Shetty that he manages to keep us engaged till the very end. So in all as a festival film that is meant to reasonably entertain with a few good jokes, G-3 does its job. Now if you are looking for anything other than this then I guess you’ve stumbled on to a wrong film .

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/golmaal-3-movie-review-thodi-masti-thodi-dhoom/

Main Aurr Mrs Khanna – A Movie that’s as confusing as it can be

A tale of marital discord with the lead actors being the ever popular Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Shot in impressive locations abroad & with nearly half the movie based in an airport and added to this is an array of well known names doing cameos. All this automatically makes Main Aurr Mrs Khanna (referred to as MAMK from hereon) a great Diwali release, one that can be an ideal outing with family or friends right? No my friends this one is again an embarrassment to the filmography of Salman Khan.
The plot ( if I can call it one ) is all about Samir Khanna ( Salman ) and Raina ( Kareena ) whose marriage is facing rough weather as Samir’s career seems to have hit a crisis. And making things difficult for them all the more is Samir who announces one day that they would follow his friend’s (Dino Morea) advice and shift to Singapore from Australia. Raina gets to know at the airport that Samir doesn’t want her to accompany him and instead wants her to go to Delhi.
But Raina prefers to stay back in Melbourne and takes up a job at the airport. There she comes across Akash (Sohail Khan) who works at the airport café and falls for her almost instantly. Her work permit is about to expire and Raina has to unwillingly apply to get married to Akash so that she can continue to remain in Australia. Just when Akash starts thinking of proposing to Raina enters Samir who returns after getting himself well placed in Singapore. He is now eager to take her back with him. What happens next is not so difficult to guess.
Prem Soni the writer and director, has got it thoroughly wrong. You wonder at times whether it’s an attempt to have a serious take on marital discord or a light hearted entertainer. There are so many situations which make you laugh (in agony) and cringe by looking at the situations conjured up by Prem Soni. Throughout the film there appears to be zero chemistry between Salman and Kareena and in fact Salman hardly has adequate presence in the film. In the scenes that he is present, Salman looks as interested as the furniture in the airport café. Kareena is strictly average over here. Sohail does what is expected.
Yash Tonk, Mehek Chahal, Nauheed Cyrusi, Bappi Da (yes of course Bappi Lahiri indeed) all have supporting characters (nothing special though) but are counted as cameos . Music by Sajid- Wajid is pretty average with the best track (Don’t Say Alvida) coming in pretty early into the movie. The Preity Zinta cameo including the song is a big let down. All said and done it looks like quite a few people have been either taken for a ride or have done the film without even caring to bother about the story (or the lack of it). After a string of flops Salman had bounced back with Wanted, but MAMK certainly derails him a bit.
It’s a pity that Prem Soni couldn’t come up with something much more impressive than this. With a star cast like this and with an enterprising banner supporting his venture its surprising how he let go of a wonderful opportunity. And it’s also a surprise as to how UTV had even wanted to support such a venture. A potential Diwali dhamaka that’s ended up as nothing but wet crackers. Inspite of the running time being well within 2 hours if you are still shifting uncomfortably in your seat or keep looking at your watch you know how boring the movie could be. MAMK gives you enough scope for it.

Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/main-aurr-mrs-khanna-%e2%80%93-a-movie-that%e2%80%99s-as-confusing-as-it-can-be/

Why Kamal Haasan should never watch Kambakkht Ishq

Ok so Sajid Nadiadwala entrusts a debutant filmmaker Sabbir Khan to make a movie. So like all Nadiadwala productions they decide to make another lavishly mounted project with A listers Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. There are also top notch Hollywood stars like Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards featuring and to top it all they decide to shoot the movie against the backdrop of Hollywood. And what do they do about the story – well they just decide to look down south and rip apart a Kamal Haasan’s Tamil movie.

Followers of Tamil cinema and fans of Kamal Haasan would remember a movie called Pammal K.Sambandham (referred to as PKS hereafter) which had Kamal Haasan and Simran in the lead. Directed by Mouli and with hilarious dialogues by none other than Crazy Mohan, the movie was a simple tale of a stuntman and a lady doctor, who both have distinct identities of their own. This movie was shot without too much of grandeur in Chennai except for a couple of songs which were shot abroad.

But in case of Kambakkht Ishq (referred to as KI hereon) there is nothing called originality. In fact exaggeration is too weak a word to describe the happenings in the movie as virtually everything is over the top. The plot is extremely silly and it’s all about Viraj ( Akshay) a Hollywood stuntman who doesn’t respect women & has them literally falling all over him. Viraj arrives at his brother Lucky’s (Aftab Shivdasani ) wedding to Kamini ( Amrita Arora ) to admonish Lucky for getting married. That’s where Viraj bumps into Simrita ( Kareena )who is Kamini’s best friend and who in turn admonishes Kamini for getting married to Lucky, as she doesn’t trust men.

The die is cast and there’s a virtual ego clash between Viraj and Simrita now. So after numerous silly jokes, some illogical situations and some constant love- hate banter between the two, the movie ends on predictable lines. Akshay Kumar seems to have literally sleep walked through the movie as the role is a cakewalk for him and he has no need to try hard. Kareena looks gorgeous no doubt but there’s nothing beyond it. Vindoo Singh as Akshay’s side kick is o.k. while Amrita Arora and Aftab have nothing much to do. Javed Jaffrey and Boman Irani are virtually wasted in the movie. Kiron Kher has again a very typical role.Anu Malik’s music is nothing great- you are likely to forget the songs after the movie completes its theatrical run.

While a lot of things can & should be overlooked considering that it is a movie after all, nevertheless certain things are almost tantamount to crime. I have never heard of any stuntman who is able to lead the kind of lavish lifestyle that Akshay Kumar leads in the movie. The kind of excessive indulgence shown in the movie actually starts hurting the eye after a point. None of the so called appearances of the Hollywood actors make any worthwhile impact on the movie. Kamal Haasan’s stuntman character was a Hanuman bhakt who wants to remain single. The character was largely believable unlike the fake portrayal by Akshay over here. Though Simran who played the heroine in PKS also has a fiery temper, she still endears to us by some realism in her depiction whereas Kareena tends to certainly go overboard often.

The script (Anvita Dutt Guptan,Sabbir Khan ) seems to be the big culprit here in what could have otherwise been a reasonably engaging movie similar to PKS. Considering that KI is probably made at more than 10 times the budget of PKS, Kamal Haasan would indeed be shocked to see what a relatively quickly made medium budget movie has turned out to be in its Hindi avatar. And yes it would also remind him again that while people are not willing to back his magnum opus – Marudhanayagam or Marmayogi due to budget constraints, there are people in Bollywood who have it going for them to produce an expensive tasteless film like KI ( at more than half the budget of a Marudhanayagam ).

Akshay- inspite of the setbacks of late (CC2C and 8*10), you are still right on top with the Khans.Why do a film like this in the first place? And as for your statement that you & Kareena in KI would be the new Mr. and Mrs.Smith, well I have no words to describe my feelings on the same. In spite of all the excesses your recent blockbusters like Welcome and Singh is Kingg worked because it was patronized by the family audience. But with KI you seem to have only alienated them and in case you haven’t realized it by now it’s certainly a pity.

Thanks to the Bollywood strike people have been literally starved of movies and so the terrific opening for KI is not a surprise at all. But it would be interesting to see if the movie is able to sustain the momentum and emerge profitable for all. I’m someone who loves the smaller films but once in a while would like to indulge in the regular mainstream stuff also. But if this is Bollywood’s idea of entertainment then I guess I would rather stay away from it. So what made me watch this? Well at 50 bucks for a balcony ticket at a good standalone cinema, I thought the deal couldn’t go wrong. But I was proved wrong. So go on if you are getting some good deal like this or else leave it for one of the T.V channels to air it shortly- you won’t regret it one bit.
On a parting note I would like to ask a question to Sajid Nadiadwala and co- when you had a lot of people to thank in the opening credits, was it too difficult to acknowledge anybody concerned with PKS? This is all the more surprising because due to industry sources, the remake rights have been bought officially.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/why-kamal-haasan-should-never-watch-kambakkht-ishq/