Category: Hindi Cinema

Bhoomi: The Review

Bhoomi has to be one of the most confused movies to ever come out of Bollywood, to an extent that i would go so far as to say that it suffers from multiple genre disorder.The movie relies on a cinematic equivalent of the Stockholm Syndrome to keep the audience interested, it hijacks your common sense right from the word go, then tortures you with the most inane of dialogues and sequences that you finally end up liking the film out of pure sympathy for the actors and the makers.I was so embarrassed by the time the movie was done that i couldn’t look my fellow audiences in the eye and kept my head down till i exited the multiplex.Never judge a film by its trailer, i tell myself every single time I’ve found myself in a similar situation but buff in me it seems, has to have it the hard way.

To rant or not to rant about a film in the first week of its release is the dilemma that i experience every time I’ve been let down as a viewer and in the past i have chosen to keep my thoughts to myself but of late I’ve been tempted to give in because there’s only so much you can take, a man’s gotta vent once in a while.If you think that i am exaggerating consider this, a rape victim gets thrown off a bridge into a river and is then shot at by the perpetrators only for the film to break into an “item” song featuring a Sunny Leone slithering in mud.The experience was surreal, Nolan should take a cue from Omung Kumar, would save him a lot of hard work on script and plot when he is looking to give the audience a film to think about next time around.This bizarre shift of mood was evident early on and it shouldn’t have surprised me like it did, to give the director some credit.

The movie opened to scenes where the makers try to establish the premise of the film which basically is about a doting single father and a his daughter who is as liberated as she could be in a place that looks and feels like the hinterland of our country though its Agra where the story is set.Scenes and lines which are supposed to choke you with emotion actually gives you a tough time when you try not to burst into a guffaw.Taj Mahal pops up in random scenes apart from an eponymous tourist guide Taj played by Shekar Suman who talks as if he just walked off the sets of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge.
Sanjay Dutt is either drinking, working out ,breaking into fits of rage or just standing still with his drooped shoulders in every other frame, throughout the film.His role, i should say was cut out.I yearn for Hirani’s biopic Dutt more than ever now, just so that i can get over this movie which was supposed to be the comeback vehicle of this actor who has made more comebacks than any other actor of our times and is the sole reason why i walked into the hall the day this
movie was released.

The makers could have engaged here with a bit more responsibility and conviction, when they were dealing with a topic as sensitive and critical as this instead of reducing the film to a mediocre bollywood potboiler.If the climax was intended to be a tribute of sorts to Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala which dealt with a similar theme three decades back, where the likes of Smita Patil, Nasserudin Shah and Om Puri scorched the screen, the only purpose it actually serves is to remind the viewer what an honest film on women’s empowerment looks like.

Baadshaho : The Review.

Milan Luthria had the right ideas but it looks as if he went about the task of executing them with half a heart.Early on Badshaaho had me wondering if it was another dig at the Gandhi dynasty under the auspices of the current government and i doubt if the film would’ve seen light of day without creating a ruckus if the Congress was in power.Hope i haven’t spoken too soon, given the fact that in power or not, politicians always find a way to have their voices heard.But that would only help this movie and it needs all the help that it can get to stay afloat, i think.I was also put off by the way in which the makers cozied up to the royalty initially but to be fair, they did try to make amends towards the end but by then i was too disinterested to even care.

Ajay Devgan speaks entirely in one liners and Emraan Hashmi keeps him company, only he keeps repeating his one liners in this heist movie from Bollywood because in all probability the writer got bored with Hashmis character to the point where he stopped developing it half way through, not that any of the other characters looked like any real thinking went into them either.Vidyut Jamwal plays an army man who prefers to travel in trains in his boxers, i guess the Rajasthan sun does that to people.Ileana tries earnestly to do justice to her role but thanks to some uninspired writing she doesn’t end up with outsized shoes to fill, considering the enigmatic life history of the person whom her character is based on and Esha Gupta’s presence is little more than a tribute to the vamps of 70s Bollywood films.Even Sunny Leone looked bored in the customary “item song”.The plot and the premise were promising but the makers lets the viewers down with some really lazy filmmaking.

All the greatest heist films from The Sting to Oceans Eleven to Bollywood’s own Special 26 have relied on the ingenuity of the plot hatched by the protagonists to keep the viewers interested but Badhsaaho obviously doesn’t belong to that school of thought.Most of the crucial scenes play out like a bad act by an amateur magician, to the point that it almost insults the viewer’s intelligence.The film did make me curious though and kindled my interest in the historical incidents against the backdrop of which the story unfolds.The movie treads carelessly upon topics which had tremendous potential like the Privy Purse Abolition, the Emergency and the political vendetta that the powers that be unleashed on their adversaries during that dark phase in the country’s history. I guess its a coincidence that the movie was released at a time when the treasures of the royal family down here in Kerala are again in the news.

Jab Harry met Sejal : The Review.

Just when you thought that SRK’s Schengen visa had expired for good, he goes and renews it in Imitiaz Ali’s latest and almost traces the route he took in DDLJ two decades back.This movie has to be an extended tribute to DDLJ and if anyone could’ve pulled off this time tested tale of “girl meets boy in Europe”, with a pinch of yearning for homeland thrown in, its the King Khan himself.Its the only logical explanation that i could come up with as to why SRK and Imtiaz Ali decided to do this movie in the first place.Now, i wasn’t bored and certainly didn’t find it as unbearable as some of the reviews going around would have you believe but its not for everyone either, strictly for fans i’d say and that’s something SRK has in plenty if the full house was any proof.In the same breath i admit that the banality of the whole premise of the film did made me burst into laughter towards the end ,much to the chagrin of the viewers next to me.

Its impossible for this film to do bad at the box office financially i think, but then i could be wrong too.Imtiaz Ali could’ve considered strapping a GoPro on his head and following Anushka and SRK all over Europe, just saying you know, for capex’s sake.The movie almost entirely relies on and revolves around Anushka and SRK.There are no other significant characters or subplots to distract you or them for that matter.The film is almost all about conversations between the lead actors and if it weren’t for their earnest performances this movie would’ve been unbearable indeed.They manage to bring a smile to your face more than once, especially Anushka.SRK has rightly been called a superstar and i realized why, long back while watching Chalte Chalte, it was his ability to carry a film with a basic plot entirely on his shoulders and manage to pull in crowds to watch him do that.No one can do romance like the King of Bollywood ,you have to give him that.

For all its cliched storyline and setting, if you look closely you’ll see that Imtiaz Ali has tried his best to bring some originality in the dialogues at least,especially in the climax.Having said that,I am all for poetic licenses and i never prod and pry into the working details of a scene as a viewer but i just can’t let this one go.By Imtiaz Ali’s logic, Punjabi singers have a higher pitch because they’re farmers and they have to sing above the noise of the tractors they’re riding on the job.Does that mean there weren’t any loud Punjabi singers around before the tractors came along?Beats me.And with the current plight of the Congress party, wouldn’t blame him for naming SRK’s character Harry and not Rahul.He’s past that age to be a Rahul too, if you ask me.

Dangal : The Review.

Game over Hollywood,authentic,rousing sports movies are no longer just your forte, there is a new contender in the ring, so to speak.I’d decided that i wouldn’t write anything about this film even before i watched it simply because as a viewer you know already that Aamir Khan wouldn’t disappoint you ,being the perfectionist he is and to even try and dissect a movie with those kind of standards would be something that’s beyond me.I honestly can’t recall the last time when an Aamir Khan movie turned out to be a disappointment.But now that I’ve watched the film, i have to share my thoughts on this movie.There it seems ,is no other go.

Sports to us is mostly just cricket and with the kind of space and encouragement rest of the sports gets in the country, its hardly any surprise that we don’t have many genuine sports movies either,except for a Chak De or a Bhaag Milkha or a Lagaan ,to an extent.This Aamir Khan movie where he delivers the restrained performance the character demands to the T, is not just about him and every character you see on screen leaves an impression on you, in fact Aamir Khan is absent from the frame in the most riveting moments of the film.If the child actors carry the film in the first half not just with their charm but with the sheer physicality of their roles, the older girls deliver an endearing performance in the second half.Yes, there are the customary song and dance sequences that Bollywood can’t live without but trust me once the film is done with you, you wouldn’t want it any other way.

The film has two Commonwealth wrestling bout sequences and these scenes are so perfectly choreographed, shot and performed that the viewers end up forgetting for those last thirty minutes that its a movie and not the actual Commonwealth wrestling match of 2012 thats unfolding before them.The scenes are truly world class and i can’t think of a movie from any other part of the world where a contact sporting event was so authentically filmed.Dangal’s wrestling sequences are in the same league of perfection as the F1 racing scenes in Rush.It is a highly fictionalized account of the true story and cinematic liberties have been taken, obviously but this movie is indeed a milestone and it does justice to story of the struggle and triumph of the Phogats.The first thing i did after the movie was to lookup Geeta Phogat’s 2012 Commonwealth wrestling match on YouTube and I know I’m not the only one who must’ve done that. #Dangal

Pink: The Review

You know some movies are going to work for you irrespective of what the general public would think about it,right when you catch a glimpse of it in the form of a trailer .For me Pink was one of those movies and the theme was as much a reason for anticipation as the presence Amitabh Bachchan and in fact it lived up to it’s promise too, on both counts.

Rajnikanth once said that in the world of movies he’s a King probably but that Amitabh Bachchan is in fact an Emperor.If you wonder why The Superstar made that statement, Pink is the movie for you.Legal thrillers are almost unheard of in this industry and all of us have grown up watching the same age old dramatized court room sequence in every other bollywood movie over and over,but when the title credits start rolling without any background music on a pitch black screen in white font, you have an inkling that the filmmakers mean business here and that you’re in for some serious cinema.There are moments when the film falls back to it’s bollywood roots though, but it does little damage at the end of the day.

Amitabh Bachchan makes his entry pretty early and though it takes another thirty minutes or so for him to utter a proper dialogue, in that time, using just his lanky frame and eyes he gives you one hell of a crash course on what screen presence is all about.The intensity that he brings to every scene is the soul of this film and that’s exactly what the theme demands too.Tapsee and the girls translate the vulnerabilities and anger of a group of women subjected to harassment and ridicule for standing up to oppressors, convincingly to the screen.

It’s a coincidence that the movie is released around the same time when the verdict is out for one of the most brutal rape murders reported in Kerala and the apex court’s judgement was under intense scrutiny and criticism.This movie is a slap in the face of the patriarchal system that ensures everyday that the women are always the victims and tells them that they’re at it’s mercy,that they will be judged relentlessly in the name of morality and that even justice is not a right but an elusive gift based on terms set by the society.It essentially tries to drive home a simple point, that when a girl says no to a boy that’s exactly what it means, No.I rest my case.
#pink##AmitabhBachchan#