Movie Review: Shootout at Wadala (Hindi) 173

Sanjay Gupta and Balaji Telefilms are back with another Shootout. After their 2007 film that was based on an incident of 1991 that took place in Lokhandwala, this time, they portray the 1982 killing of gangster Manya Surve. An incident which is known as the first ever 'encounter' by Mumbai Police, which triggered a series of them.

Based on the book 'Dongri to Dubai', the film tries to bridge between fiction and real life incidents and attempts to make it as real as possible. However, barring the lead character, the rest of the names have been changed for obvious reasons! Also, since the title itself reveals what the movie is all about, there is no suspense there.

The story starts off with a scene in Kirti College, Mumbai where a studious Manohar Surve (John Abraham) is writing his exam paper and refuses to show his paper to his girlfriend and classmate Vidya (Kangana Ranaut), thus establishing him as an honest-to-the-core character. He is keen to avoid the murky past of his father and his step-brother and seeks to make an honest living after completing his studies.

However, a freak incident changes it all and Manya is falsely implicated in a murder case along with his step-brother who actually committed it. With dreams shattered, and a hard time in prison, he bulks up, learns to fight and Manohar turns into Manya. While serving his sentence, he teams up with a fellow convict Sheikh Munir (Tusshar Kapoor) and the duo stage an escape after having done time of around nine years.

Manya returns to the Mumbai and seeks employment with the Haksar brothers Zubair (Manoj Bajpai) and Dilawar (Sonu Sood) who are seen as a challenging force to the Pathans. When he is denied entry, Manya decides to form his own gang and challenge them to the supremacy towards proclaiming himself as the 'Baap' of the city.

On the side, his love tale also evolves, since Vidya is now a widow and the couple rekindle their romance. And this eventually proves to be his Achillies heel when a cop Afaaque Baaghran (Anil Kapoor) along with his colleagues Tambat (Ronit Roy) and Shinde (Mahesh Manjerekar) chooses to eliminate Surve and his likes.

The movie attempts to portray the dark days of Mumbai when gangs ran the show and how an innocent college lad turned into a fearsome goon, thanks to the pathetic justice delivery mechanism and the corrupt establishment. The story shows how cops wait on the sidelines as one gang tries to eliminate the other. And when it comes to picking a target for an encounter, they obviously pick the easier one.

What stands out in the film are some good performances. John Abraham looks the part as the goon who was once held the title of 'Mumbai Shree' as a professional Bodybuilder and delivers an honest performance. Manoj Bajpai does well as usual while Sonu Sood delivers a powerful performance. Anil Kapoor is good enough too.

Among other actors, Kangana Ranaut readily fits the bill of the 70's and 80's look and acts reasonably well. Tusshar Kapoor does ok and his character does bring out occasional laughs. Shakti Kapoor's son Siddhant makes his debut as one of Manya's gangsters. Bollywood's noted yesteryear villain Ranjeet, who was last seen in Housefull 2, makes an appearance as Bhaskar Dada, who has a skirmish with Manya.

The songs aren't memorable, except that they are played repeated on television. The oft repeated ones are its three item numbers, one each by Sunny Leone in 'Laila', Priyanka Chopra in 'Babli Badmaash' and Sophie Chaudhary in 'Aala Re Aala'. Well well, no prizes for guessing which of these three is better!

Verdict: When a movie has good acting and item songs, and yes, dialog loaded with swear words, there is a tendency of such movies to gravitate towards mass appeal. Nonetheless, for all that it offers, 'Shootout at Wadala' is a decent watch. But, those of you who detest gory violence are better off staying away.

Rating 6/10: Typical gangster tale, for mass entertainment 

Movie Review: Bombay Talkies (Hindi) 172

May 03, 1913 marked the day when motion picture was born in India, the day that Dadasaheb Phalke’s silent film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was released. A bit of trivia there is that the female roles in the film were also played by male actors, and the acting talent was drawn from theatre.

Till date, the influence of theatre, and especially the roots from Sanksrit drama still play up in Bollywood’s films. Surely, we love all the extra drama, sometimes characters yelling out lines as if they were on a stage before mikes were invented and the truly inimitable song and dance.

And a film that is supposed to pay a tribute to a century of celluloid adventures of Bollywood that have enthralled not only Indians but even those abroad, ought to have been better. What was supposed to have been an extravagant celebration of cinema merely ends up like a moist firecracker.

‘Bombay Talkies’ is about four independent stories, directed by four reputed Bollywood directors, Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar & Anurag Kashyap. Any analysis of the movie would have to be broken up across each of these four short stories, rather short films of 30 minutes each.

#1 Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh by Karan Johar has an urban couple Gayatri (Rani Mukherjee) and Dev (Randeep Hooda) whose lives go for a toss when a young gay intern Avinash (Saqib Saleem) enters their lives. The very predictable ending and the men kissing each other has a shock value and the story has actually no connection to the overarching theme of cinema or the centennial anniversary.

#2 Star by Dibakar Banerjee is probably the better one of the lot. It has Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Purandar who has failed at business and employment. Just then, out of the blue, comes an opportunity to act as an extra where he shares screen-space with a big star. This brings out the inner theatre actor in him that had starred in a couple of plays after his father, also an actor had passed away. The animated enactment that he performs for his daughter at the end is indeed very touching.

#3 Sheila Ki Jawaani by Zoya Akhtar is about a little boy called Vicky (Naman Jain) who is attracted to the idea of dressing up as a girl and yearns to be a dancer a la ‘Sheila’ from ‘Tees Maar Khan’. His father (Ranvir Shorey) is obviously annoyed at the idea. Nevertheless, the boy is supported by his sister. This segment has a cameo by Katrina Kaif who extols the idea of following one’s dreams. Still can’t really figure out whether there was even the remotest possibility of it being linked to the centennial.

#4 Murabba by Anurag Kashyap is quite decent. A young man from Allahabad, Vijay who, as per his ailing father’s wishes visits Mumbai to feed a Murabba to Amitabh Bachchan. He hangs around his Bungalow like many others who stand there for hours for a fleeting ‘darshan’ of the super-star. His money is drying up and he needs to hurry! On a stand-alone basis it would have made a good short film that on one hand, exalts the stars and then in the end, exposes the pointlessness of all fandom.

 Did you know? There was a real studio called ‘Bombay Talkies’ in Mumbai from 1934 to 1954 and produced 102 movies. It was a public limited company that was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Founded by actor Himanshu Rai and financed by Rajnarayan Dube, some of the names associated with this marquee include Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Mehmood Ali, Madhubala & Dilip Kumar.

The movie itself, however is absolutely underwhelming and leaves you a feeling of why did you even choose to watch this film. Some of the situations in some stories are so contrived, convenient and at times inappropriate too. One striking example of the absurdity comes from the first story, where an intern has the gall to make a first conversation loaded with innuendos to the assistant editor in his office. That is just one of the many things that won’t fit into any reasonable logic, outright.

Verdict: ‘Bombay Talkes’ is your typical pseudo-intellectual film. So, if you have a thing for parallel cinema, this is just the film for you. But, in the context of the occasion, it just not a film that pays tribute to a hundred years of Indian cinema. Only for that reason, I rate it as film that struggles to even make it to ‘average’. The montage of all the stars in the end, which is actually a bunch of green-screen stuff put together, doesn’t help either. So, don’t waste your money on this one!

Rating 4/10: Bollywood’s Centennial deserved a better tribute

Movie Review: Iron Man 3 (English) 171

After Batman, Iron-Man is probably the coolest one among super-heroes not just because the suits and gadgets, but because of the attitude with which they carry on their tasks of being vigilantes. Incidentally, the films made on them in this decade have had intriguing villains and have been enormously successful and have been visually stunning. Super-heroes and all the swashbuckling action is here to stay!

In the third edition of 'Iron-Man', the focus is mostly on Tony Stark rather than the antics his suit can perform. It's more an effort to portray that Iron Man is more about him rather than the suit. To that extent, they have succeeded but, as a result, the movie seems rather bland as compared to the stylized effects we'd previously seen.

The film flashes back to Switzerland to the New Year's celebration at the turn of the Millennium where Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is busy hanging out with botanist Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) that  he ignores a crippled scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). An unexplained blast briefly disturbs their night; but this is soon forgotten.

Cut to present day, America seems to be haunted by a new villain who calls himself the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) claiming responsibility for blasts that seem to be occurring just about anywhere. And, a new version of Killian, now well built and suave approaches Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) at Stark Industries seeking a partnership to advance his genetic technology called Extremis, which she refuses.

A turn of events leads to Tony Stark challenging the Mandarin to a fight, at his home, to which the villain promptly responds by destroying it. Stark and Potts barely survive the attack and the former now seeks to get to the bottom of this.

Some spoilers; we are told that the genetically modified bodies heat up to three thousand degrees before blowing up. And while everything around them is vaporized, their clothes are only slightly tattered. Fire resistant clothing, huh? And there is no real clarity on what can actually destroy the genetically modified villains.

The most annoyingly boring scenes include those in Tennessee. Did Stark really have to go there? And what was so significant in that file that he tries to retrieve? And what was that precocious kid doing out there, all by himself! If at all an Indian film maker came up stuff like this, the audience and critics would have ripped it apart.

Putting this aside, the visuals effects are spectacular. If Iron-Man 2 sported a suit that comes out of a briefcase, Iron-Man 3 has a Mark 42 suit whose parts are programmed to remotely fly down towards him and get attached to Stark. Also in the movie is Colonel Rhodes' War Machine branded as Iron Patriot in Red-Blue-White.

The villain is menacing and makes Iron-Man's life difficult. He is not only physically strong but is also smart enough to be manipulative. Nothing more can be disclosed in a review without disclosing the details. Just one mention; since the villain is named the Mandarin, he is shown sporting Chinese tattoos and also breathes fire.

Acting performance is on par with the previous versions with Downey Jr, Paltrow and Don Cheadle reprising their roles. Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley do well in their respective roles while Rebecca Hall didn't have enough screen time. Some info, Gwyneth Paltrow actually has six-pack abs. How cool is that!

The Verdict: Okay, granted that it has some failings and does get boring in parts; but the sheer star-power of Robert Downey Jr and some cool action keeps it alive. The post-credit scene also shows Stark meeting up with Dr Bruce Banner a.k.a Hulk. Is an Avengers movie lined up? Never mind what's in the pipeline; watch 'Iron-Man 3'.

Rating 7/10: Not overwhelming but entertaining enough

Movie Review: Aashiqui 2 (Hindi) 170

For starters, I really wonder if this was actually a movie themed on love or was it a two hour plus lesson on ill-effects of alcohol addiction. Guess what, I haven’t been able to figure it out yet! The sequel to the 1990 musical hit ‘Aashiqui’ doesn’t match up to expectations. Here’s why:

The film begins at the scene of a rock concert by a fallen star Rahul Jayakar (Aditya Roy Kapoor) whose best days are already behind him and he is now suffering from heavy alcohol addiction that often gets him into trouble. After an incident that disrupts the concert, he drives around Goa, rams his car into a tree and goes around looking for booze. He then spots Arohi singing at a bar, discovers that she dreams of being the next Lata Mangeshkar and feels that she has the potential to get there.

The film actually never explains why Rahul is insanely addicted to alcohol, something that even true love can’t cure unlike what we see in most films. Here, one would also be reminded of ‘Woh Lamhe’ where a character’s troubles take her down the drain. In ‘Aashiqui 2’ though, it gets ridiculous at times, where the protagonist guzzles one bottle after another, neat, at a frequency as if it were plain water. And despite that, he hardly looks drunk. Rather, the actor was quite bad at playing drunk.

Continuing with the story, Arohi soon tastes success as a playback singer and wins the award for the best singer of the year, an event where he makes an unceremonious exit, and ends up drunk on his penthouse’s terrace. He is concerned about his problems having effect on her success. And despite this, Arohi chooses him over success saying that any success without him is of no avail.

‘Aashiqui 2’ can also remind you of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1973 film ‘Abhimaan’ where a singer, Amitabh Bachchan’s character finds talent in Jaya Bachchan’s. Then they fall in love, and the green monster of jealousy strikes him when she becomes more successful. Despite some resemblance, ‘Aashiqui 2’ is more about Rahul coming to terms with his reality, building his dreams on Arohi and encouraging her to do better and his problems are drinking and unable to handle his fall well.

On acting, Aditya Roy Kapoor is decent but is not convincing enough. Surely, he has a bigger potential than what Director Mohit Suri has explored in this film. Shaad Randhawa who plays Vivek, his long time friend and manager is good. Some of the worst actors are those who played Arohi’s parents.

Shraddha Kapoor is good with emotional scenes and enacts the from-the-bottom-of-the-heart kind of love with all earnest. Her girl-next-door looks make her perfect for her role. Her performance is an improvement over her debut film ‘Luv Ka The End’. If you didn’t know it yet, she is the daughter of Shakti Kapoor and niece of Padmini Kolhapure. Obviously she got her looks from her mother.

What works is its 90’s charm of sweet love stories that aren’t about selfish backstabbing romances or suspense thrillers we see today. Neither does Rahul’s character despise her success at the cost of his own fall from grace, nor does Arohi dump him even when her career looks bright and his drinking problem is too much to handle. It’s about stories where they are willing to put everything aside for the sake of love with utmost honesty. Songs ‘Tum Hi Ho’ & ‘Sun Raha Hai’ are nice and are popular already.

Where it fails are some clichéd scenes and dialog. The situation of the girl’s parents over-the-top dramatic and what was the need for Rahul’s dad’s voice-over through phone calls? Also, a girl who sings his songs for a living can’t recognize him in one scene and she later recognizes him all of a sudden. And the scene from his apartment clearly isn’t Mumbai. Was an overseas location really necessary?

Still, there are a couple of scenes stand out as exceptions where Mohit Suri’s directorial talent is seen such as; ‘Tum Hi Ho’ song, Rahul’s exchanges with Vivek , his pep talk with Arohi before her first big recording. The one that takes the cake though is Rahul and Arohi’s conversation across the door.

The Verdict: If you are sucker for love stories, you’ll love the mushy element. If you only liked a couple of songs and care not about the rest, better watch the songs on YouTube. For those who detest Bollywood romances, keep away from it. Nonetheless, despite a few slippages here and there, the honest story and the deep love they portray keeps the film from totally going down the drain.

Rating 4/10: Master Class on Alcohol Addiction garnished with songs  

Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan (Hindi) 169

For an audience that has gotten used to spooky flicks that range from scary to sorcery, flying ghosts, witches, sudden shock element, etc., it is incredibly tough to come up with something new. This is especially true of Bollywood that has seen an overdose of Ram Gopal Verma flicks. Amidst all the gloom comes a refreshing ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ with a gripping story, although the climax goes tad haywire.

Magician Bobo (Emraan Hashmi) is a successful magician who suddenly is being troubled by strange visions. When hypnotized, it is revealed that he holds a dark secret to how his sister and father died and the story being the spooky elevator in the building where he lived as a child. The more he seems to dig into the past to unearth its antecedents, the deeper he gets into the mystic world. Not any more should be revealed about the story because it is a worthy suspense.

The first thing I did after watching ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ was to Google out the difference between a ‘Chudail’ and a ‘Daayan’. As it turns out from a random web page, a ‘Chudail’ is an ugly demon that emerges when a woman dies during childbirth and lives in remote areas. A ‘Daayan’ is a beautiful enchantress that has become one on account of harassment during her lifetime and therefore attacks men and usually lives in urban areas. Whoa, who could ever guess that!!

Some of its songs are impressive. The best of those is ‘Yaaram’ that’s performed at the housewarming hosted by Lisa, followed by the eerie ‘Lautungi Main’ but Punjabi flavored ‘Totey Ud Gaye’ sounds lame. A few more impressive numbers could have carried ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ even further.

The choice of locations is impressive. The opening scenes are filmed at Gurgaon’s “Kingdom of Dreams” which stages an extravaganza of sound and light with impressive transitions, a must see for those visiting the region. The locations for the eerie home and the lift are neat too. The hypnotic background in the psychiatrist’s office is an interesting piece of décor and serves as a backdrop to some key scenes.

Talking about acting performances, Emraan Hashmi does what is best at. It’s amazing that despite such type-cast roles and similar performance in all films, his movies still work well at the Box Office. But, Konkona is the better actor in this film. Kalki and Huma Qureishi also do reasonably well.

The Verdict: Unfortunately, not much of the story can be discussed in a review without revealing a bit of the suspense. So, if you want to know what it is, it is better to catch it while it is still in the cinema halls. This is surely not a movie that you could wait till it comes on TV. Although one shouldn’t watch it with exalted hopes, since it fizzles out towards the end, you wouldn’t regret watching it at all.

Rating 6/10: New kind of thriller with a couple of nice songs