Dear Zindagi ~ "Sleepless in Goa"

Release date- 25th November 2016

One Word which describes the film- Exaggerated

Best Dialogue- "Life mai jab koyi pattern ya adat bante hue dikhayi de to uske baare mai acche se sochna chahiye. Genius is about knowing when to stop."

Genre- Drama

Music- Amit Trivedi

Producer- Gauri Khan, Gauri Shinde, Karan Johar

Story & Direction- Gauri Shinde

Cast- Alia Bhatt, Shahrukh Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Ali Zafar, Angad Bedi

Budget- 45 Crores including P&A

After watching Dear Zindagi, I read some reviews of famous critics which made me wonder that did they see the same film as us. Whereas most of the people with us were getting restless about how the film went on and on and how some even walked out after interval, the critics couldn't stop talking about how handsome and down to earth SRK looked as Jahangir Khan, or how the film has easily recovered it's production cost cause of it's low budget and selling of distribution rights to a single company.

An average movie goer has no interest in knowing about the economics of a film. He/she is only interested in the entertainment, informational or motivational value of the film.

Gauri Shinde made her directional debut with the highly acclaimed English Vinglish(2012). In her next film Dear Zindagi she tells about Kiara who is having problems in her life and so she decides to visit a 'dimaag ka doctor'.
If this visit to a shrink was just an episode in the film as was in '2 States' where Arjun Kapoor because of the complexities of his relationships couldn't sleep, the film could have been interesting. Sadly Dear Zindagi is 75% about the long conversations between Shahrukh Khan and Alia Bhatt and how he makes her come to terms with her life, which almost everyone in the audience found too monotonous and boring.

There are three heroes in the films but instead of playing any significant roles they just come in 2-3 scenes and then disappear.

Then we have SRK playing the role of a psychiatrist who tells his patient that boyfriends are like chairs which is such a silly thought but is absolutely loved by the patient. Anyone who watches Koffee with Karan will agree that SRK is a smooth talker and he says everything with such sincerity that not only we believe it, we love listening to him too. But that's in a talk show. In a film we expect him to play a larger than life character, a lover, a father, a hockey coach or even his own fan.

Alia Bhatt is an excellent actress and she has perfectly portrayed the role of a confused girl. She is a natural performer but if she wants to be a part of the big league she has to do more main stream roles like Anushka Sharma or Deepika Padukone.

The film's basic problem is the lack of a proper story. It's more of a set of incidents where we sometimes see Kiara partying with her friends in a disco, or shouting at her parents, or flirting with any guy who hits on her. These scenes make her character look like a shallow girl than depressed.

There are some moments like when a talk between the protagonist and her doctor inspire us on how we must leave some memories for our kids or how we shouldn't let our past effect out future but they are so few that after an hour we couldn't wait for the film to finish.

The film is shot mostly in Goa and though there is lot of scenic beauty we wish that the director has worked a little more on the story too.
The film was released in 1200 screens and because of Shahrukh Khan managed to earn 8.75 Crores on it first day which is quite good. 

In a line, with talented actors like Shahrukh Khan and Alia Bhatt and no budget restraints, the director could have made a much better film which was high on entertainment quotient too.
Time-pass.

Udta Punjab

Release date- 17th June 2016

One Word which describes the film- Distressing

Best Dialogue- "System main rehke kuch karna aur bahar se baithke halla karne main jo fark hai wo ab pata chalega aap ko."  

Genre- Crime/ Drama

Music-Amit Trivedi

Producers- Balaji Motion Pictures, Phantom Films

Story-Sudip Sharma

Direction-Abhishek Chaubey

Cast-Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dosanjh, Satish Kaushik

Budget- 40 Crores approximately

I went to see this film with little expectations, thanks to all the biased reviews of the critics and mixed word of mouth. The starting was quite unimpressive with Tony 'Gabru' Singh, shaking his pelvis on the title song. My eyes kept shifting from his tattooed chest to the song subtitles which were equally shocking.
In next scene Shahid is seen mouthing all kind of abuses while composing a song which went like Cock-Coke-Cock-Coke. The song was actually so bad that his producers cancelled his contract.
That's the point from where the film starts becoming interesting.
When Tony is sent to Jail and the police inspector puts him in a cell with other criminals telling him, 'Pehle banda ban ja phir banna VIP', he feels his castle of stardom falling like a pack of cards. Later we see him telling an equally distraught Alia, 'Agar tujhse koi bole, 'jo nikal gaya na vo teri life ka sabse achcha time tha, wapas nahi aana. Maal khatam. Party over. Go Home', we could feel how hard it was for him to accept that his life as a pop star could just be a thing of the past. I feel Shahid has given a very good performance.

Alia Bhatt has proved that while bubbly and energetic may be her niche, she can also be gritty and subtle to great effect. In most of her films Alia has to look pretty and show lots of leg and cleavage but here in shabby clothes, dirty hair and no makeup she gives the best performance of her life. I just wonder with Shandaar being Shahid's and Alia's last film how could the director imagine both of them for this film.

Diljit Dosanjh as Assistant Inspector is at par with Shahid and Alia in the acting department. He looks innocent and naive when he's trying to impress his lady love. He has a ruthless side too which we get to see when he is talking to his corrupt cousin,'Baat Aapki Aur Meri Nahi Hai, Yeh Baat Hai Punjab Ki'

Kareena Kapoor as Dr Preet was never the focus of the film so she just manages to give a decent performance.

The film does not glamorize or show any highs which a person can achieve because of drugs. Instead it shows how drugs destroy all the beautiful things in not only your life but also in the lives of the people associated with you.

So why would anyone want to see a movie about drugs, despair and death, regardless of how well crafted it is? Because Udta Punjab is an interesting, sometimes funny, and involving tale with empathetic, down to earth characters. To be fair to the film, it doesn't tie up all the loose ends into a nice pretty package. We are given cause for hope, but the open-ended nature of the final scenes suggest that the struggle will go on.

In a line, this movie through its characters teaches us important lessons like too much indulgence, greed or expectations can be injurious to health and the lessons are well taught.

Must watch for 18+ audience. 

Fitoor ~ Red Alert

Release date- 12'th February 2016

One Word which describes the film- Gloomy

Best Dialogue- 'Khud se azadi to sirf maut hi de sakti hai, ya fir ishq.' 

Genre - Romance/ Drama

Music- Amit Trivedi

Producer - Abhishek Kapoor, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story -Abhishek Kapoor , Supratik Sen
(Based on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)

Direction -Abhishek Kapoor

Cast -Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Tabu

Budget- 50-55 Crores approximately

The film is about a poor boy Noor who falls in love at first sight with the rich Firdaus. Years pass and the boy travels from Srinagar to Delhi, becomes a famous painter then travels to London and still remains obsessed with her.

The film revolves around Noor well portrayed by Aditya Roy Kapoor. He lost weight to look younger. His body language and expressions are perfect in most of the scenes.

Katrina Kaif had to play the 'femme fatale' in the film but in most of the scenes she looks confused and tensed. The child artist who plays the character of young Firdaus looked more confident and arrogant and when she tells young Noor, 'Neeche dekho' there was an authority in her voice. When Katrina tells Aditya, 'Ghoorna band karo, ab tum bacche nahi rahe' it sounded more like a request than an order. The posters show intense chemistry between the lead pair but in the film there are no such vibes which may set the screen on fire.

Tabu looks old and over dressed in most of the scenes and doesn't do justice to the character. She was supposed to be the master planner but in the film she comes out as a sulking middle aged lady who has a constant grudge with everyone around her.

The director must have envisioned a fiery, passionate love story and so there is a huge castle with hues of red, a red Mercedes and even a heroine who has red hair. The paintings made by the hero have bright red maple leaves and red backgrounds. Sadly his vision couldn't transform into reality and instead of seeing any passion we just have to do with heavy duty dialogues narrated by the hero now and then.

'Agar meri kismat mein sirf khaak likha hai, mujhe qubool hai. Agar yeh hi meri aakhri aah hai,  mujhe qubool hai. Qubool hai, qubool hai, qubool hai.'

Ajay Devgan has a 5 min role in the film and I think all his fans would like to know whether he owed something to Abhishek Kapoor that he agreed to do this insignificant role where he looked old and ugly.

The film has successfully captured the beauty of Kashmir but most of the scenes are shot in such dim light that in half of the film we keep waiting for it to come from darkness to light. 

The film got a poor opening of just 3.6 Crores and with bad reviews and word of mouth the film has turned into a losing proposition both for the producers and actors.

In a line despite creating a beautiful backdrop, the director has miserably failed in his attempt to tell a passionate love story.

Time-pass. Can be seen for the beautiful cinematography and melodious songs.

Shaandaar ~ Vikas Bahl redefines the Heights of 'Chutzpah'

Release date -22'nd October 2015

One Word which describes the film - Absurd/ Senseless/ Weird/ Stupid/ Silly (One word is not enough to describe this film)

Worst Dialogue - 

Pankaj Kapoor- ' Tu samajhta kya hai apne aap ko?'

Shahid Kapoor - 'Kuch nahi Sir, tucch praani. Aam admi. Raju Hirani.'

Genre - Comedy/ Drama

Music - Amit Trivedi

Producer - Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Karan Johar, Madhu Mantena

Story- Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar

Direction -Vikas Bahl

Cast -Pankaj Kapur, Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Sanah Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor

Budget- 50 Crores

How times change in a year. If last year Vikas Bahl was the most popular Bollywood director, winning almost all awards for Queen, this year he will be the most criticized person for making a really weird and senseless film and then calling it Shaandaar!
After SRK's over the top promotions for RaOne, Shaandar must be the next film to promote itself on every reality show. In fact the chemistry between Shahid and Alia Bhatt during promotions was 100 times better than their chemistry in the film.

In an interview Alia said that, "What I really liked about the concept is that Vikas came to me with only five lines. He said that it's a love story of two insomniacs, there is a destination wedding, there are some four characters that seem completely crazy to me." 

Guess Vikas himself too didn't work anymore on the concept as the final story can also be narrated in 5 lines with lots of stupidity and sleep inducing moments. If only the characters had seen Shaandar themselves their insomnia could have been cured and the audience could have been saved from the torture.

Apart from a bad story line the film is full of stupid dialogues like

Alia - I can't believe...kabhi tumne kiyaa nahi hai....Hath mein kabhi fevicool nahi lagayaa hai..Aise..! 

I would really want to ask the makers of the film that who was the target audience for this film ?

It's a well known fact that when Karan Johar saw the film he was not very happy with the end results and wanted the director to edit it and also  re shoot some parts. The film has Karan's touch as there were castles, girls whose only aim in life was to dress up in shortest of dresses, pout and click selfies and last but not the least a 'Mehendi with Karan' sequence.

To create sensation among the audience a totally irrelevant to the story, Alia Bhatt in a bikini scene was added in the film which was the most discussed topic on social networks few weeks back.

Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt have blindly followed the director and have mouthed the really weird lines with supreme confidence. 

Pankaj Kapoor is a great actor but he has no scope to show his acting talents.

Sanjay Kapoor has tried to copy big brother Anil Kapoor both in terms of dressing style and dialogue delivery but guess it's his bad luck that success continues to elude him.

The two dance numbers Shaam shaandaar and Gulabo are good but we have seen them so many times in promos that even they failed to bring any life in the already lifeless story.

Because of the promotions too much hype was created and the film got an opening day collection of 13 Crores. But now with bad reviews and  negative word of mouth it will be a difficult task for the film to earn decent numbers over the weekend. 

In a line there is not much to enjoy in the film except Alia Bhatt's pretty face but after some time the weird story starts getting on your nerves.
Avoidable. If you are a big Alia Bhatt fan or under 10 then you can watch. 

Review of Queen

Release date – 7'th March  2014

One Word which describes the film – Liberating

Best Dialogue - ' Kissing mein bhi Indians hi best hai '

Genre – Comedy/ Drama

Music – Amit Trivedi

Producer- Anurag Kashyap , Vikramaditya Motwane

Story & Direction -Vikas Bahl

Cast -Kangana Ranaut , Rajkummar Rao , Lisa Haydon

Budget- 12-15 crores approximately

Queen is about a girl from Delhi , whose lover turned fiancé breaks with her a day before their wedding , telling her that he thinks that she would not be able to match his lifestyle in London .
What follows is a slow story with some flash backs , crying over the past and then a random decision by the girl to go on her pre planned honey moon alone .
Once the other female actress Lisa Haydon enters the scene the film turns into a glamorous , fun filled affair with the two females who are poles apart in their way of living , discovering a strong bond of friendship .
The film has powerful female characters like a single mother who works hard and parties harder , a lap dancer who is practical about how the profession earns her good money  and  a grand mother who makes her grand daughter realise that if she wanted to watch TV she could have better stayed at home .
The film shows Kangana's journey from a time where she is drunk and crying   "Mera toh itna life kharab ho gaya, itna life kharab ho gaya mera.." to a time where she happily says 'Thank You'.

Apart from Kangana's acting the other thing which stands out is the way the director has shown Paris and Amsterdam. The cities are not shown like some 'heaven on earth' as is done in Yash Chopra's films. There are small hotel rooms,shady roads and crowded night clubs.

Director Vikas Bahl said in an interview that they didn’t have the budget to shoot elaborate sequences or stay put at one location for long. “We were just 25 people from India for the shoot. We would book a place for a couple of hours, then rush to another location. We would eat at the nearest hotel where we were shooting, and at times Kangana would change her clothes in public toilets! We shot in about 145 locations in 40 days,” .

 The budget constraints gave the film the much needed realism . 

Rajkumar Rao has the weakest role in the film and keeps irritating the audience with his repeated i love you yaar and other cheesy dialogues.

The master stroke of the film is the climax where the girl uploads her memorable pictures on Facebook and her new friends comment on them.

In a line after watching Shaadi Ke Side Effects people will really enjoy how a woman luckily escapes getting married to a stereotypical Indian male and instead gets to live her dream and see the other side of the world.

Entertaining . Can be seen in theaters.

Rank - 1 (Out of the 6 films I have seen in 2014)