Yashraj Banner has been under the trade scanner from last 2 years. Once the winner of consecutive “Power Awards” from Filmfare, is now being looked with doubts.

With Aditya Chopra at the helm, YashRaj Banner has started experimenting with different kind of scripts and formulas. It from the box office report card, one can say that it has not succeeded in the endeavor. When YashRaj was dishing out candy floss entertainers with different flavors of love all these years, they have been accused of not trying different stories and not trying untraded path.

I feel Aditya Chopra has guts and enough balls to keep everything at stakes and try to be honest with story telling. From the floral carpets of Switzerland to scenic locales of New York and London, YashRaj has always been synonymous to Glamor, Grandeur and Beauty.

But Aditya tried his hands at different genres ranging from speedy entertainers like Dhoom Series to rustic local stories like “Aja Nach le”. From over progressive (with wrong assessment of the word “progressive”) “Niel and Nikki” to fully regressive “Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag”.

While he has got business success with experiments like “Bunty aur bubbly” which I found to be below average movie, he had lost battle with movies like “Tashan”. While he achieved landmark success with movies like “Dhoom”, he lost credibility with a fast paced racing movie like “Ta Ra Rum Pum” which I found actually worth 4 stars (Don’t you think people would have identified with todays recession times? It had a wrong time release. No one believed there can be lack of money in those times.)

In the mean while when he traded different paths with “Kabul Fiza”, he got critical acclaim. When he delivered different punch with “Chak De India”, he got both critical and box office success. In the mean while, safe bets like “Bachana ye Haseeno” proved to be successful.

I know you will be wondering why I am writin autobiography of Aditya Chopra in a Movie Review. But I must tell you that “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” is releasing at a very very important point in YashRaj Banner’s history where people are most skeptic about them. There has been a mixed bag or reviews and responses on this movie and I really wonder when people give 2 or 3 stars to this movie and some do not stop abusing it also.

The history of Yashraj Banner with Aditya Chopra as the captain is very important when reviewing this movie. After watching RNBDJ, I can say that Aditya has got balls. When many of his experiments failed, when he is facing turbulent times at box office, he never compromises with scripts and story telling. He is honest with the story and scripts demands. When we expect experimentation from a successfull banner who has been a factory of candy floss romance over decades, we shall be ready to understand the fact that box office results are going to be different for each experiment. We can not expect each film to be successful or perfect.

People can come up with examples like Aamir Khan Production or Farhaan Akhtar production which has huge success rate while being experimental. But here the point is they are not producing movies at the volume which YashRaj Banners produces.

I know there is a big anti-YRF lobby working in the industry now may be because of the wrong monopolistic methods they tried to applying their hey days with multiplex owners, etc. But everyone learns from mistakes and one shall not overlook the benefits they have brought into many lives.

Aditya Chopra has been pioneer in establishing Studio Format Business Model which was dead in India but is popular in Hollywood. Here, he is not part of every film but gives opportunities to people who could have never got an entry into a camp like YashRaj. Yashraj is mobilizing a lot of money into the industry and enabling new directors which new ideas. They are even giving chance to good actors like Ranvir Shorey (Aja Nach Le) and Vinay Pathak (Rab ne) to be part of A+ grade movies which could have been very hard for them otherwise.

Are you going to write off all this? If you calculate the investment and money mobilization this banner has done, if you calculate the amount of income generated by this banners prodigies in outside banners, you will finally know that Aditya has indeed progressed the Bollywood Industry.

Give him a break please!

History apart, a movie is a movie and we shall review it as an individual piece of art.

The movie is about a common man with as common name as “Surinder” aka “Suri” (Shahrukh Khan) and a girl next door “Tani” (Anushka Sharma). They both get married under unavoidable circumstances. Suri is average working class human and Tani is bubbly, enthusiastic, full of like Modern Indian Girl with fire in her belly.The incidence kills the spirit of Tani. She told she would never be able to love again and give love to Suri but she would try to be the best wife.

But Sury who had been in love with her at first sight, is hell bent to get her love him. He wants Tani to love him as he is. His triumphs in doing so is what this story is about.

Suri observes Tani’s fascination for “Heroes” in bollywood movies while watching movies with her. He asks his hair stylist friend Bobby (Vinay Pathak) to transform him into a stud. And he does that and gives birth to “Raj”… Suri’s another avatar who just wants to see Tani Dancing in her dance class.

Wearing Tight Jeans, Tight T-shirts with most bright colors and weird combination in the world, Raj bumps into Tani at the dance class. By some mistakes, he has to appear as partner with Tani. He had no plans to continue as Raj, but had to due to the bonus of getting able to dance with Tani every day and to know her better. What happens next is a fun fair and a family film.

I won’t disclose more as I think everything is already said about the story of the movie and we shall try to keep it as secret as possible.

The story is unusual, unique and never been told in Hindi Cinema. The protagonist played by a person who is labeled as most romantic hero of bollywood is appearing in most unlikely avatar. The heroine of the movie is not as per strict standards of Yashraj Banners and is as good as any other girl we see everyday. The story does not have locales of Newyork, London or Europe (the movies now a days have made us believe that there are stories to be told only about NRIs. Aajkal Indian me Indians rahte hi kaha hai?). The story does not happy chiffon sari clad beautiful female protagonist.

At first reactions, we may reject many parts of the movie, but when you do some deep thinking, you come to know that Shahaditya has not let down the story. They have been honest to it. They could have brought unbelievable twists in the tales and could have presented Raj as most fine romantic character. But they have gone by the surroundings of the characters in the movie and had been loyal in bringing out characters which are real to the story and its happenings. Thats why Raj is not pure sophistication but is modern rustic jaat young man with his own rough edges. Nor Tani  is a sample of unachievable sculpture of glamor.

Do you think that Yashraj shall never attempt such story? Do you think Shahrukh who has been accused always about doing typecast roles of romantic interest of already engaged woman, shall not try his hand at something as different and unique as Suri?

Will you write off the guts of these guys? Well, then you shall not demand experimentation at the first place.

Aditya Chopra has strong command over the movie from the first frame to the last. He knows what story he wants to tell, what is the story about and how it shall be told. He is honest to the story and tries to give all the entertainment and drama in that format.

We never feel detached to the happenings of the on screen events barring few (20-30) minutes in between where things get little bit stretchy and boring. There are few scenes which you can say are part of average low budget hindi movie (like the Sumo fight) and there are some lengthy scenes which may distract some people from the proceedings of the movie.

But soon Aditya manages to get it back on track.
SRK puts all his cloths of a super star and slips into the shoes (slippers?) of the character of Surinder. Also in the modern and hip role of Raj, he does not get smooth suave characters as he used to play. Raj is also having the rustic Jaat feel on the character and some times goes as overboard as appearing cheap. SRK shall be applauded for his courage to accept such role. Aditya Chopra shall be rewarded to produce a movie with such characters.

Newcomer Anushkha Sharma surprises with her finesse and prowess in portraying the role of Tani. She comes as pleasant surprise though she is not standard heroine. It would be interesting to see how she manages her further career (I hope she does not end of like Gracy Singh).

Vinay Pathak as Suri’s Friend Bobby is a surprise element of the movie and does full justice to the role. He is the lite element in the movie.

The cinematography is excellent. The screenplay could have been little tighter. The choreography could have been much much better. The main week part of the movie is music. Salim-Sulaiman fails to give numbers which are expected from Yashraj banner. Though “Haule Haule” is good, “Tuzh me rab dikhta hai” is good. “Dance Pe chance mar le” is catchy but not an immortal dance number.

The surprise song where all YashRaj’s current heroines (Kajol, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Pretty Zinta) features is also not very good nor the song where SRK woes Anushkha as Raj. Aditya Chopra sure lacks in choosing good music as his dad, Mr. Yash Chopra used to excel in that.

It is a family movie and you can watch it with your it together with your parents and kids (adding to revenues of Bollywood). So go watch it :). On the whole, the film is full on Shahrukh Khan-Aditya Chopra entertainer and we can call them as Rab ne bana di jodi- “Shahaditya”.

BR Rating: ***1/2
BR Verdict: Very Good!
BR Recommends: Watch it with full family and friends. Shahaditya Rocks!

8-8-8 (8-8-2008)

The deadliest date for some and lickiest  date for few. Many people had eyes on this date for different reasons. Few had fear, few had faith. Sports buff were waiting for it due to Olympics….. and we…. the madly-in-love-with-bollywood crowd…. we were waiting for it due to this years most awaited movie…. Singh is Kinng!

Of course it had to be awaited…. because… it is Akshay Kumar’s Tribute to his community. It is his 2nd attempt after “Namastey London” to win the international market. It is from the producer of “Namastey London” and Director of “Welcome”…. 2 of the biggest hits of 2007 from Akshay Kumar. Not but the least, its lead pair is most successfull actor and actress of 2007. So the expectations are sky high.

Billion Dollar question is: Are those fulfilled?

That’s why I am hear for. To give you the insight of the movie. To help if decide whether or not you shall spend your hard earned money and precious time on this flick.

So whats the story? Actually its something I had not expected (I should stop building my own stories after watching promos), but whatever they offered is full roller coaster ride of fun (fulltoo), thrill(few) and emotions (enough). All this together, they provide a proper bollywood nautanki. The good part is they were clear about their vision and they succeeded getting it on silver screen.

The story of the nautanki goes somewhat like this:

Lucky Singh (Sonu Sood) is from same”Pind” i.e. village as Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar). The most common thing in them is they both are hated by their community and people but for total different reasons. Lucky Singh is King of Underworld in Australia. He is Don of Dons. He is disliked in his village as he has defamed his Sikh Community and his village. On the other hand Happy Singh is disliked due to his extra helpfullness. He is always trying to help others but does a greater damage in the process. So he becomes kind of headache to the fellow villagers.

So his friend Rangila (Om Puri) devises a plan to get him out of the village by blackmailing him to volunteer into the cause of getting Lucky Singh back from his vinoumous journey to nowhere but death. Happy easily gets trapped but he also brings in Rangila with him in the journey.

What happens next is the story of the movie… which is quiet unusual headless comedy, so go enjoy it personally.

Let’s first talk about promotion of the movie. I must congratulate Vipul Amrutlal Shah for his faith in his product and putting so much money on promotion. Apart from that he deserves appaluse for the production values, great unseen locales and of course his endearing support to Akki in becoming the new Super Star of Indian Movies.

Then comes the second pat on the deserving back of the director, Anees Bazmee. From “No Entry” to “Welcome” to “Singh is Kinng”, Anees is climbing success ladde. Congratulations to him for pulling of another headless comedy so well.

On the music side, Pritam (Singh?) Chakroborti has given another smash hit album for Akshay Kumar. The Title track is already topping the charts followed by the “Jee Karda” track picturised on marvelous locations of egypt with santilatting, sensuous Katrina Kaif dancing to the great thumpy tune with the Punjabi Munda Akki. The 2 million rupees SnoopDog and Akki song is used unfortunately at the end titles. End title video songs are so much hard to watch properly with 80% of audience standing to leave the cinema hall. What a waste!

Cinematography is awe inspiring. The action scenes are breath taking. Choreography is inspiring. Screen play is taught and the dialogs are hillerious, emotional and hard hitting where needed.

Covering all the other departments above, I had left the best part for the end and that is performances. Akshay Kumar leads the all other talented lot. He performance both the villager part and the Kinngs part with elane. Katrina Kaif compliments him perfectly. Kirron Kher is excellent. Sonu Sood is outstanding. He has got the most meaty action scene of the movie and that will help him grab some more A+ class movies. There are many other characters and each has significant and sufficient screen time even the movie is just over 2 hours. Ranvir Shorey succeeds in impressing again. Neha Dhupia is able to attract all the eyeballs on her despite presence of the another Kat. She does her job well.

So the thorn has been bestowed upon the Kinng finally! Akki is King… New international superstar of bollywood. I hope with “Chandi Chauk to China”, he becomes true flagbeerer of Global Bollywood Movies. I pray for him and bollywood.

BR Rating: ***1/2
BR Verdict: Very Good!s
BR Recommends: Watch it with full family and friends. Get mad with the comic rollercoster ride.

Let’s get to the point…. the movie starts at a promising note… a bomb blast and news about it.

Vikas Sagar (Zayed Khan) and his wife Anjali (Sherya Saran) are electronic news media reporters. They are having troubled marriage due to his passion for news and career. In that endevour he gots an opportunity to work with Al Zahur channel in Istanbul. As opposed to Anjali’s wish, Vikas grabs the job and lands at Istanbul. Little that he knows, what is going to happen next.

In his introduction with his colleague i.e. Owais Hussain (Sunil Shetty) and his boss Ghazni (Nikitin Dheer), he is mentioned not to try to visit 13th floor which is guarded like a Big secret. Unfortunately, Vikas is directed to 13th floor by his fate and some incidences

Owais is killed by terrorist Khalil nazir (Shabbir Ahluwalia) and his photo is put on wall in office. Vikas desires to solve the mistery behind that. He is pushed in to it by an unknown person who later turns out to be Rizwan Khan (Vivek Oberoi).

Later after some incidences and unfolding of stories behind the wall and Rizwan, Vikas and Rizwan become friend and joins hand in the mission…. Mission Istanbul.

What happen next is the story which you can watch on screen.

Everything till now is very good. The movie grips the audience at start and we expect a world class action packed suspense thriller. But the writers soon ran out of creative juices and Apoorva Lakhiya is left in lull for proper story to tell. He demonstrated his spark when he has properly written first half, but he could not help much to save the 2nd half which goes down spirally to useless and ineffective fight scenes.

Can these guys not feel what is happening with the movie when they write or read the script? Don’t they prepare a story board? Can’t they prepare a low rez version of the movie using pre-production tools easily available around? Why do they have to realize their mistakes after the movie is released? Now a days movies are in profit always due to many kinds of rights (music, satellite, home video, etc).

I mean isn’t it real waste of money and time of the audience (its clear that there money is secure) ?

The first half is very complex to understand because there are many events coming out of the blue but due to the underlying suspense  we are glued to the seats for some time. Once the things start to become clear, the movie sleeps through the director’s hand and he does not have much to tell or he fails to interestingly tell whatever he has in hand.

The production values from Suniel Shetty’s  are top notch. We feel like we are going to witness an international level plot with Hollywood kind of sleep packaging, but the content lets down the movie.

On performance side, Vivek Oberoi gets a meatty role and he does justice to it. But his character does not have much once his story is revealed.   Zayed sure has good acting talent and does his part well. Shreya Saran does her job well. Suniel Shetty is there for a small role and is ok. Shweta Bhardwaj has great body but she needs some more movies to brush up her acting skills. She has same kind of expression all through out the movie.

Shabbir Ahluwalia is strictly ok and so is Nikitin Dheer. But Dheer does have an impressive body which can help him be Indian Hulk. Even his face looks like that. Can someone do it?

The music has only one good song which is used at end title. So three music directors can not create great magic in this department. Also songs are used even when those are not needed. Old habits, die hard…. huh?

The other department which shines is Cinematography.

So there is nothing much in store for us to go and watch it in theaters.

BR Rating: *1/2 (extra half for few good scenes and cinematography)
BR Verdict: Below average.
BR Recommends:  Wait till it comes on tv. Or even it won’t make any difference if you totally miss it.

What story I shall tell you about Jaane tu… ya jaane na? The movie has tested and often repeated story of Love mistaken as platonic friendship.

You have seen it in Genelia D’Souza’s first Hindi movie “Tuze Meri Kasam”, you have seen it in many other films. A boy and girl who are studying together and are bonding so well that everyone else except themselves think as a perfect made for each other couple. After some ups and downs, they realize that they really are made for each other. So everyone has a happy ending.

Cliched storyline… isn’t it? But who says one shall not make movies on such repeated story lines if they have some new ways of telling it? Haven’t Manmohan Desai made at least half a dozen movies on same story line of lost and found formula? Isn’t every successive movie of his was bigger success than earlier?

As I often say in my reviews, a movie which is able to create an immersing experience for audience is a good movie. If a movie with repeat story does that, why deny it from its fair share of praise?

So why do critics has to talk about the cliches and lack of innovative story? What about innovative presentation? And if they can not relate to this movie, I must say they are too old to watch it. Be young at heart and watch this movie.

Aditi (Genelia D’Souza) and Jay (Imran Khan) are so thick friends that everyone think that they are … yes… made for each other. But they don’t think that about each other and laugh at it when they come to know that even their parents are trying to get them engaged. They decide to find a life partner for each other as they know each other better. So Aditi finds a girl for Jay. Jay really gels well with her.

Aditi senses that Jay is getting away from her and she starts to realize how much she really wants him in her life. But she tries to get away from that thought by getting engaged to someone else.

With lots of interesting twists and turns at the end, they unite. Happy Ending. Period

There is nothing much to talk about the story as its same old wine in new bottle…. but wait…. the new bottle is what makes all the difference…. and the older the wine the more classier it is.

From the first few scenes, we get involved with the characters sketched on celluloid for us. We forget that we are seating in the dark theatre with 100s of more people around us watching it. We just get absorbed inside the life of those bubbly, chirpy, happy characters on the screen. We try to re-live the magic of that age… (and we don’t even need to say that about the same age audience).

Abbas Tyrewala makes us weak in our knees with his prowess of storytelling, writing, dialogs, direction. Everything about this movies is just perfect. But still few things are unique which I must mention them here :

1. The relationship between Aditi and her brother
2. The relationship of Jay with her mom
3. The relationship between Jay, his mother and his father (?)
4. The character sketch of Jay’s new girlfriend

Every track, every stream, every ITEM of this movie is so well fitted and so properly interwoven that this script, screenplay will be an object of study for next generations.

The songs are perfect and already rulling the charts. A. R. Rahman again impresses us with a new sound and we appreciate his mastery over music whole hearted …. God knows how many times.

The choreography is perfect. The casting is spot on. The performances by everyone, everyone means absolutely everyone, is perfect.

Imraan never makes us feel that this is his debut movie. He is so seamless and yes… perfect. Genelia has done same role many times and hence she is …. perfect. Special mention to the actor who has played her brother. Extra special metion of Ratna Pathak and Nasiruddin Shah as they are … yes, perfect. Paresh Rawal in a small role is perfect (after all we thought that he is overdoing himself in the Priyan style movies). Double Special mention of Sohail Khan and Arbaaz khan in the cameo. They have got the best role of their life and they are not going to get it again in their life…. in this movie they are perfect.

Kudos to Abbas Tyrewala, Kudos to Amir Khan…. Kudos to everyone involved in this movie… They are perfect…

Everything in this movie is perfect….

This movie is a masterstroke.

It is a Cult!

Period.

I am giving 5 star for the first time to any movie and I was waiting from ages for that.

BR Rating: *****
BR Verdict: EXCELLENT !!
BR Recommends: Who am I to say anything? Just go and watch this movie again and again.

A lone young boy, Karan (Harman Baweja), lacking attention and affection both from his father talks to his late mother in loneliness. He feels he has no one who cares for him and hence he is big time into dangerous adventure sports.

While on his trip for mountain biking, he meets a girl, Sana (Priyanka Chopra) and it is love at first site for him. After many attempts of owing the girl with his passion, madness and love, he finally is able to capture her heart.

They depart after the vacation and (strange enough for this Internet and Mobile generation) they lost touch of each other (can they not share mobile number or email address?). This period of pain brings them closure and Karan finds her love in a city where he stays with his uncle Ya (Boman Irani). Uncle Ya is a scientist who is working on a Time Machine.

After Karan finds Sana back, he takes her to visit uncle Sana with her mom. He shows her the house and to impress her he even shows her the Time Machine. They try to time travel and set the destination year to 2050. Uncle Ya find them out and kicks them out of their lab. But in this process by mistake, Sana rubs a formula written by chalk on Blackboard. She corrects it according to her memory (which actually is correct formula that Uncle Ya is trying to find out from last 15 years…. how bollywoodish! ).

In all this love, romance and Time Machine story, something happens which changes the life for Karan….

What is that event… what happens after that…. is the story of Love Story 2050.

First the plus points:

1) Priyanka Chopra is marvelous. She is the saving grace of the movie. She is real asset for this sci-fi flick.

2) Harman is excellent. He is “Long Race ka Ghoda” to be sure. He needs to get perfect movies.

3) The 2050 setting is MindBlowing. The speciall effects are REAL….. and of international quality.

4) Archana Puran Singh and Boman Irani are excellent.

Now the minus points:

1) Script is weekest point of the movie.

2) The woving a girl sequences do not connect the audience to the characters making it effectless.

3) There is no proper story telling as there is not much story to tell. Harry Baweja is surely let down by the screenplay (story is his own)

4) Background Music is bad, Songs are mortal. Annu Malik is big disappointment.

5) Direction of Harry Baweja could have been better

So thats it, it sums the movie. But let me tell you, this is a movie which has lift the standards of Bollywood Special Effects to a very high level and has matched it to Hollywood movies. In fact, sometimes it feels like this movie is too much ahead in technical finesse by todays times.

Hats off to Harry Baweja for that. He has left no stone unturned in making 2050 a real world.

You really find yourself living there. So feel free and GET TRANSPORTED!

BR Rating: *** (2 for the movie/storytelling, 1 for the special effects)
BR Verdict: Good!
BR Recommends: Ek bar dekhna chahiye. Once a Watch!

Kunal Kohli…..

The new age directors who wants Indian cinema to take on the world and be recognized as its own brand. He wants not to be lured by Oscar Awards and hold our head high based on what we have achieved till now.

He came as a winner with “Hum Tum” and then being touted as a successful and dependable director with “Fanna”.

Kunal Kohli worked for the renowned and respected banner of Yash Raj Films. His friendship with Aditya Chopra has helped him to fulfill his long cherished dream of becoming a producer. “Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic” is result of this alliance and we really have great expectations from both of them.

Does this movie good to fulfill our desires as audience? Let’s see:

Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic (TPTM) is a movie about Mr Ranbeer Talwar who is a focused businessman with success at his feet. He wins award as a businessman of the year and while back on the way to home, he tries to operate mobile while driving and hits into a car. The car has Mr. and Mrs. Walia in it. They are both dead on the spot.

Ranbeer’s court case becomes a talk of the nation and media frenzy over it forces the judge to give a justice which can be an example for the others.

Judge summons Ranbeer that he has to take care of the 4 children of the Walia family and keep them with him. He can not leave the city without them and he can not put them to boarding school. If he fails to do so and if the kids are not happy, he will have to face 20 years in jail.

The children visit the home. They are filled with revenge and hatred for Ranbeer. They plan to annoy him to the hilt so that he misbehaves with them and in turn gets the 20 year jail.

During this little war, they many times remember their parents and cry out to God about it. Ranbeer is also unhappy and prays God to help him.

God (Rishi Kapoor) looks at them and listens their payers on his Hi-fi Earth Monitoring System. He decides to send his most disobeying brat Angel (Rani Mukherjee) to earth. Her job is to unite the kids and Ranvir as family and then come back.

What happens after that is a Magic and Fun story.

Kunal shows his grip on the media from the first frame of the movie. The movie instantly grabs the audience attention. The characteristics of the Saif’s personality are brought fore through the titles itself and when the titles end the accident happen…. fast…. super fast.

The tale after that regarding the media frenzy, judge’s verdict, kids visit to home and their purposeful annoyance caused to Ranvir, unfolds fast is interesting.

Immediately, the song of Angels breaks the pace of the movie. Then movies has ups and downs and the pace loosens. Its good at some point, its boring at some part. In spite of the fun and magic special effects, the movie lefts a hollow in the experience.

The script dies after the very good pace in initial part of the movie. The writers suddenly get out of ideas to pump life in the script and unfolds with a very predictive twists and turns. But due to the kids, angel, magic and fun, the movie keeps us glued to the seat. It fun film to watch with family.

Kunal Kohli does a fair job in direction and had tried to lift the movie with fun magic to cover the weaknesses in the script.

The performances are pleasure to watch especially Saif Ali Khan who looks like a greek God, Ran Mukherjee who fits the character of angel, The Sikh Kid and the Judge.

On the Music front, the songs fail to create any impact. Lazy Lahme is a good song but the visuals can trouble the family audience (but it can not be avoided watching as it has lots of fun for kids too). Kunla should not have put ameesha’s exposure meter on so high. It is contradictory picturization. He packs in sensuous exposure for adults and fun elements for kids in one single song which does not gel properly. He should have avoided that. Instead of the Angel Song, Lazy Lamhe could have been used in the start to give a break to the audience.

Cinematography is good and the special effects are plenty but those lack international quality. Feels like a low budget job done.

In spite of the flaw in script and boredom at some points, the movie is worth a watch once with family and kids. So go watch it.

BR Rating: **1/2
BR Verdict: Above Average
BR Recommends: Recommended to full family. Worth a watch!

10 Different incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Each life having multitudes of stories, sub stories and legends. Indian mythology is filled up with myths and stories about all this. It is not very easy to cut down all those information and create one flawless free flowing story on screen. However, Dashavatar excels in that. Period.

It starts with 2 kidnapped kids who run out of the trap of the goons. They take shelter in a Krishna Temple where they are saved by a pujari who is actually “Naradamuni” in disguise of the pujari. After the goons are kicked out by him, he takes them to “swarga” (heaven) and tells the story of Lord Vishnu and his 10 Incarnations.

It talks about all the avatars starting from Matsya to Lord Krishna. Each era, each hero is explained in details but in pace so you know everything and even do not get bored. Once all the initial avatars are over where we are not aware of much details due to our lack of Indian mythology, things get more interesting when movie reaches to the Story of Bhakta Pralhad and Narsimhvavatar. After that with the introduction of Parashuram, the movie reaches interval.

The first half can have mixed bag of reactions from different age groups. Though the second half takes it to another height as there are more familiar stories about Shri Ram, Shri Krishna, etc.

Even attempting this movie was kind of suicide. As we call it its like lifting the “ShivDhanushya” and the director has done it well. Hats off to the screenplay writer who has woven the narration so flawlessly flowing. The director deserves applause for the perfect HIGH TORQUE prensentation of so much huge subject.

Apart from that the animation is of international standards. It is even better than wht Toonz have shown us till now. Better than Hanuman and all previous movie. That is the level Indian Animation has reached today.

They have used 3D portions seemlessly wherever necessary with the basic 2D format. That is something new. This happens when the director understands that the medium is just a method or tool to present the story and it shall not overshadow the actual story. Nowhere you feel that you are watching a cartoon film or kids film. That is what animation film should be. We need to explain Indian public that animation is not for kids only. It is a medium which has unlimited possibilities which can portray never before seen visuals which are not possible (at least in our budgets) in normal cinema.

There are 2 high points of the movie as per me.

First is Narsimhavatar. It is orchestrated so beautifully and at the climax of that story a marvelous crescendo of audio visuals immerses the audience totally in the experience.

Second is “Vishwarupdarshan” or display of divinity by Lord Krishna to Arjun. I mean I was so stumped by it that I felt like I am watching it actually. That is what is called as cinematic experiance.

The background music is another important part of this movie which is as important as the visuals. The music director Anand Kurhekar has fabulous job on it. The songs are good and used intelligently to take the story forward (Narasimhvavtar, Ramvatar, Krishanavatar, etc.).

In the voice over by Shatrughna Sinha is used for narration. The other sutradhar of the story are the 2 kids, Naradmuni and the apsara. The boy voice is not very good and it sometimes artificial accent irritates. Also same with the Apsara. The best voice acting is done by Sachin Khedekar. That is a perfect casting. Sheryas Talpade as Narada is also good. Everyone has done justice to their part.

I must congratulate Percept Pictures which is no synonymous with animation films in India to support and distribute this film. They have done excellent promotion and I hope the movie shall pick with word of mouth publicity.

Too small kids will get afraid because there are too many rakshasas and to many fighting scenes which was obviously unavoidable. The dark portrayal of those can get the smaller kids to cry. I think the movie is perfect above 10 age group and mostly 10 to 20 and then 35 and onwards will like it very much. So this becomes a perfect movie for full family.

Apart from cartoon channels, this movie can find place in religious channels also due to its detailed portrayal of stories in “Purana”. The older age group people will love it. I recommend the “Vishwarupdarshan” the most for them.

So to get your lessons in mythology in most enjoyable way, visit your nearby theatre and watch “Dashavatar”.

BR Rating: ***
BR Verdict: Good!
BR Recommends: Recommended to full family. See your Gods in action!

Why do we watch movies?

Why some movies are good and some are bad?

I think the answer is we want to have a different experience in those 90-180 min movies. We wish to forget our regular world and pray that the storyteller of the movie grabs all our senses and takes us into a different world all together.

If a cinema does that its a good cinema, if it fails, its not one. It is as simple as that.

Why did Sarkar connected us to the protagonist Nagare family so much? Why do we feel the power should be with Sarkar, why do we feel he shall win?

This is another aspect of good and bad cinema. The characters of the movie shall fulfill some underlying wish of ours which is hidden deep inside. We like the dialog “Muze jo sahi lagta hai, main woh karta hun” because we get a pleasant shock out of it. It is a mixed feeling like “Can anyone live life like this?” and “Can I do something like this?”. It is the hidden wish of a person to be able to say so which Sarkar DOES! That is what connects us to that character.

Whenever such connect happens, it is a good cinema. If it doesn’t, its a bad one.

While narrating the story, the magicians of cinema weave a new wonderland for the “Alice” in us. In this process, they create some symbols, some protocols, some new identities which becomes rituals for us. If there is bound to be a sequel of the story, we hope it shall not destroy those symbols, shall not deviate it self from the protocols which the first movie created and has set in our mind.

If the story of the sequel properly manages the balance of keeping the symbols, protocols, identities intact and still surprises us with a new experience (which we want at least as good as first), the sequel is good. It it fails to do it, it is bad.

Why I am getting into all this before actually writing the review? I will reveal it at the later part of the review.

Coming to the story of Sarkar Raj, the new King of the Raj, Shankar Nagare (Abhishek Bachchan) is doing well. He is better than his father (Watch the scene when Amitabh declares this and after that Shankar weaves his had to the Aam Junta. You we bend in knees watching the expressions given by Senior Bachchan).

Anita (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) , the director of a Sheppard Power corporation wants to setup a power plant in Maharashtra. She is informed that it can happen only if she is able to make Sarkar a party for this project. Sarkar is reluctant to do this project as it involves shifting villages comprising 40,000 people. But Shankar believes in the project and feels that it make Maharashtra’s progress speed up further. So he convinces Sarkar.

He makes it clear that he wants the people to take decision about this project by choice and not by pressure. So he rally around all potentially project affected villages to convince them and succeeds in that. But Sanjay Somji who is local leader does negative publicity about the project and the things get out of control.

What happens after that, you can watch it in nearby theatres.

The biggest highlight of this movie is Performances. The lead characters from Bachchans are bound to raise the expectations sky high and they deliver the job fantastically. Apart from main leads, the surrounding characters have been pillars in Sarkar and so it does in Sarkar Raj also. There is splendid performances by Govind Namdeo, Sayaji Shinde, Upendra Limaye. Rajesh Shringapure as Somji is ok.

The background music of movie is again good. Cinematography is excellent except the blue tinted scenes which came in between instead of sepia toning.

Dialogs are good and entertaining in first half.

First half of the movie is better than the prequel. We get happy that RGV is back with all his form. We are delighted to be part of the experience. We expect things go same way in 2nd half if not better. I had personally given 4 star in my mind to the movie before interval and was expecting that RGV manages to get another half in 2nd half of the movie. I  was back to the screen with excitement and eagerness after the interval, but ……

RGV takes a total U turn and the movie goes down spirally and finally gives us a below average 2nd half. He has given totally unwanted twists to the movie and has presented a dull fair which makes us wonder …. WHY?

Coming back to my initial discussion, why am I getting into all this before actually writing the review?

Because I feel bad about what happened to the story of Nagare Family in Sarkar Raj. Because it has broken the symbols which it created in our mind in first movie. It does not follow the expectations of the audience (each one can have different expectations, so people can differ) properly. Audience already has a story line in mind for the sequel and expects it to be better than what is in its mind…. RGV has done total injustice to the story….. which has left me frustrated and I am not able to get over that frustration. I am totally exasperated.

Everything was going fine in the movie… everything was perfect…. they why this lack of imagination? Why this lack of creativity? There was no connectivity of the audience to what is happening on the screen in second half.

What happens in second half is as bad is getting HIV after giving a Blood Donation….

But do watch this movie for the first half. I strongly recommend the first half.

May God bless RGV with creativity!

BR Rating: 2 (4 star for the first half, 1 star for the 2nd half)
BR Verdict: Excellent First half, Bad second half.
BR Recommends: Watch it for the first half. It is a must watch. Can not say anything about Second half. You decide yourself and do post comments. I really need comments on this movie and my review this time.

Tashan…..

The most awaited movie of the year….

I do not say it, a survey says this.

So what’s the fate of it today on the D-day?

The story:

It is about Bhaiyaji (Anil Kapoor), Akshay Khanna (Bachchan Pande), Saif Ali Khan (Guruji) and Pooja (Kareena Kapoor). Saif Ali Khan is call center employee and trainer. Kareena requests him to teach English to he boss, bhaiyaji. Bhaiyaji is learns “tod-fod” english from Guruji. In the process guruji falls in love with Pooja.

One day Saif comes to know that Kareena is being tortured by Anil Kapoor  and is stuck with him due to 5 crore loan on her father from Bhaijayee. They both make plans to steal 25 crore of him and run away. They successful do the operation and return to Saif’s home. Saif goes for a visit to office and gets stuck there. When he comes back, he finds Kareena missing with money.

Bhaiyajee hires Bachchan Pande i.e. Akshay Kumar, who is from his town Kaanpur, to find these two people and get his money back.

What happens after that is a roller coster ride called…. TASHAN!

The promos, promotional material did not excite people much…. first impression is last impression. The first look of the movie was Kareen on bike with Saif and that has generated huge curiosity due to Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Breakup. The publicity was low key. So it did not give any clue to audience about what to expect. Akshay Kumar with jeans and long shirt with Gamachcha on his head was quiet interesting to see.. Kareena and Saif in urban atires, Anil Kapoor in some weird dress up. It was all confusing but was interesting.

The movie is like that. It is a mash up i.e. “Bhel” of rural and urban masala with southern style tadaka. Some may like it, Some may hate it.

The story is a thin plot and is like Manmohan Desai style. The narrative is unique where each characters tells the story and takes the movie forward. The low point is screenplay. The movie has up and down graph of excitement and engagement which is tiresome and boring at some points. That is troublesome. The dialogs could have been better with so much witty star cast. Anil’s hindi-english blabbering was not necessary for full time. I mean, once you learn English, you don’t use it always. Using that mix language was not at all required for full time.

The biggest hitch is Songs. Those are not very long lasting and some are bad. All songs sound same with rustic rural flavors and urban mix to it. However those does not move the story forward except the “Dil Dance Mare Re”. If those are removed or only small part of song is used, then it can be helpful to the movie. Vishal-Shekhar disappoints this time.

The first half is fast and furious and ends in straight 70 mins. But the 2nd half lingers and goes round and round. Direction from debutante director Vijay Krishna Acharya is promising but it has full south Indian movie touch. What let’s him down is the screenplay.

Cinematography is excellent. Locations are beautiful.

On performance side, Akshay is excellent, Anil is entertaining, Saif is ok (it is not his problem, he has been wasted). Kareens is mind blowing. She looks Billion Dollars (million will be less for her). She acts good. She does the given job with full justice. And yes…. she is in bikini…. and all other outfits are also not much bigger than bikini. So there is lots to watch for Kareena fans.

There are not many other characters and whatever are there are ok.

This was supposed to be comeback of Akki in action film genre. There are only 2 action sequences in the movie both are after interval. Akshay shines there. However, while trying to maintain the rustic and raw feel, the director has lost a chance to deliver a sleek action movie product. So though the scenes are good, they are not extraordinary. This is a chance wasted by the banner and the director.

To sum it up, I think Aditya Chopra is trying to develop some Urban/Rural Mix formula from Bunty aur Bubly. A formula which will apease to all kinds of audiences (Om Shanti Om?). He is not yet getting success in it. So this movie goes over the top, weird and boring at many places. After all making movies without a story is not very easy art.

BR Rating: 2 (1 star for the movie, 0.5 for Kareena, 0.5 for Akshay)
BR Verdict: Average
BR Recommends: You must watch this movie if you like south Indian masala movies or 70s failed headless formula movies. If you like good movies, you can stick to Shaurya.

Krazzy 4…. one of the most awaited movies due to the tremendous hype created by SRK item number followed by Hritik Roshan’s with added “tadka” of Rakhi Sawant. Also there were many controversies created to generate public attention. Not to forget the last minute fight for copyright which cost 2 cr to the producer and  made a bad black spot on the Roshan’s. A movie which made 2 cr loss before its release…. due to the copyright issue.

Forget about all the above and just have a look at the credentials of the promoters and the actors. Roshan’s as we all know are the marvelous masterminds who know the key to Indian Audience’s heart and have been in the industry with very less failure ratio. The actors including Arshad Warsi, Irfan Khan and Rajpal Yadav have shown great flavor for comedy in the past. People look forward to their movies if its an comedy. Even Suresh Menon has fan following who watch TV a lot. I mean a combination of all this can be a dynamite of laughter. That’s what Krazzy4 promises and is meant to be…..

Does it fulfill its promise? Does it live up to expectations? I will leave the verdict for the end.

First let’s talk about the plot or the story (Rakesh Roshan). Its about 4 mental patients who are being treated by their Dr. Suman (Juhi Chawala). Everyone has different mental disorders with heavy medical names. In layman terms, Raja (Arshad Warsi) is very very short tempered and can get violent over small issues. He was a cricketer and was in love with Shikha (Dia Mirza). But due to his anger, he had breakup with her and is being treated at hospital.

Dr. Mukherjee (Irfan Khan) is obsessed with cleanliness. He has to get treatment when that obsession turns into an disorder. Gangadhar (Rajpal Yadav) is researcher in Freedom Movement and later assumes himself in pre-independence era and as a freedom fighter. He is being treated to get back normal to current times. Dabboo (Suresh Menon) has selective mutation disorder means he can speak but when and where, one can not tell. Not even he himself. (But why does he acts like a child?) So he is mute throughout the film with 1 word (Kidnap) to utter and a dialog at the end.

Dr. Suman finds a lot of progress in them and thinks they are ready to face the society now. She wants to take them to watch cricket match on Independence Day. Defying the oppositions of the fellow colleagues, she takes them out. On the way she stops at her husband’s house to take some papers and is kidnapped by some goons. Dabboo witnesses that but as he can not speak, he can not tell anything to anyone.

Despite strict orders of Dr. Suman that no one moves out of the car till she comes, everyone is out with their own reason. So 4 krazzy men are out on the streets of the city…. What happens next? You can see that when you watch the movie.

This was a great comic plot. But sadly it does not turn into great comic screenplay and movie. Credibility gained by Ashwani Dhir is being at stake after 2 movies back to back i.e. 123 (one two three) and Krazzy4. He does not have expertise on the movie medium as he has on television. He is good dialog writer but that does not help a bad screenplay and a bad movie. He sure needs to get back to basics.

Director Jaideep Sen must be happiest man before the release of the movie thinking that he has got the chance of his lifetime to prove himself and that to with FilmKraft as his launching pad. The poor guy got carried away with the chance and overtook a bad screenplay. It is like being captain of a ship with a big hole at its bottom. He shows his direction skills in emotional and patriotic scenes of the movie (like Rajpal Yadav’s scene when he stands still as national anthem plays). I am sure he can do wonders with a emotional or patriotic movie (with good tight screenplay). However, Krazzy4 is complete dull product from him. I hope he gets second chance to prove himself.

The first half of the movie is STAND STILL. Nothing happens in it. It takes 35 mins to get the first good laughter from the audience. Can you imagine? First laugh after 35 mins in a movie which is supposed to be comedy which can make you krazzy. Sure it does but due to the thought that why on earth we choose this movie to watch. Even 123 was bearable.

Second half picks up little bit when the 4 guys come into action. However, there are many things which you feel as made up (climax talk), childish and amateur. We come out of the theatre dancing to the title tune only because of SRK and Hritik. But inside we pray that thank God! The movie Ended.

I mean why on earth you have to make a movie for which you even don’t read the script? Why did Irfan Khan chose this role? First of all, why did Rakesh Roshan chose this story? It was good story but why he did not look into details of the screenplay? Didn’t he feel that it is going to be a weak product? Or is it that he knew it and hence he used star power like SRK and Hritik Roshan (even Rakhi Sawant) to create hype? I think thats what he did and business wise I hope he will recover due to low budget of the movie and highly over hyped publicity. I can be a successful business venture for FilmKraft, but for the audience, it’s a heartbreak.

Music by Rajesh Roshan is already in news for good and bad publicity. The item numbers for which they paid 2 crore are the only saving grace of the movie and also Rakhi Sawant song can be paisa wasool for the masses. Cinematography is average. Locations are average.

Talking about performances, Irfan Khan and Arshad Warsi are totally wasted. Arshad is more like a angry young man of the movie than being a krazzy comic character. He does his job well but its not comic. Irfan Khan does not have much to do and should have clearly stayed away from this movie. Ditto wasted is Suresh Menon. Again he does his job well. Dia Mirza is ok. Juhi Chawala has got perfection in the role she play i.e. of a sweet lady. The character and performer who gets out most laughs and also stands out in touching scenes is Rajpal Yadav. Afterall, all good things come in small packages.

Err… but not the movie… it is small (approx 100 mins) but it feels long and bore. Being small can not always guarantee a good product.

So to sum it all, stay away from this movie. Download the item number on your mobiles and mp4 players, watch it on TV, buy its VCD/DVD. Because that’s all this movie has to offer. You don’t need to go to theatre for anything else. If you wish a better movie to watch on weekend, I will suggest you to buy or rent out DVDs of even Dhamal and Dhol, but stay away from Krazzy4.

BR Rating: *1/2 (1 star for the item songs, 1/2 for the movie)
BR Verdict: Below average
BR Recommends: Why these guys just burn their money? It will be more fun than making such movie. Audience, you can also do that with your ticket money than to watch this.