Judgementall Hai Kya

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Amyra Dastur, Jimmy Sheirgill, Satish Kaushik, Brijendra Kala

Director: Prakash Kovelamudi

Story, Screenplay & Dialogues- Kanika Dhillon

Mental Hai Kya was renamed as Judgementall Hai Kya, after the Indian Psychiatric Society wrote a letter to the censor board to object against the film's posters and title.

The trailer of the film was quite intriguing and created enough curiosity in the mind of the viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywLe4m2j2I

The story revolves around Bobby, played by Kangana Ranaut, who is diagnosed with acute psychosis. She suffers from mood swings and has trust issues. As the story progresses we come to know that she is delusional, has hallucinations and her condition gets worse if she forgets to take her medicines.

She works as a dubbing artist for South Indian films but thinks that she is good enough to be the heroine. Her manager is also her boyfriend but she uses him to get all household chores done. 

Rajkumar Rao plays the role of Kangana's neighbor. There is a twist in the story and both Kangana and Rajkumar Rao become murder suspects.

First half gives us a detailed insight into Kangana's character and few glimpses of Rajkumar Rao. After interval the story becomes inconsistent, new characters are added which don't make much sense. To add to the confusion, Bobby is asked to be a part of futuristic Ramayan, told from Sita's point of view. Bobby starts thinking that she is Sita and the voices in her head start telling her to punish the wrong doers.

The film starts as a comedy but soon turns into a murder mystery with the lead actors trying to frame the other for the murder.

Near the climax everything starts falling into place to give the viewers a happy ending.

Rajkumar Rao's character is poorly written and he never gets much opportunity to show his talent. Kangana Ranaut has given a decent performance but ends up looking melodramatic in few scenes.

The film was released in 2000 screens and despite good reviews from critics collected just 4.5 Crore on Friday. The film has a budget of 35 Crore and may end up as a loss making proposition for its makers.

In a line, Judgementall Hai Kya looks like a result of reading too many Sidney Sheldon novels and because of an inconsistent story line fails to entertain or thrill the audiences.

Avoidable. Can be seen if you are a die-hard Kangana Ranaut fan.

Review of Shamitabh- Not everyone's cup of tea.

Release date - 6'th Feb 2015

One Word which describes the film -Thought-provoking

Best Dialogue- Agar paani whiskey ke bina badh sakta hai to socho whiskey bina pani ke kitna chad sakti hai.'

Genre - Drama / Comedy

Music - Ilaiyaraaja

Producer - Sunil Lulla, R. Balki, 
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, R. K. Damani
Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan
Sunil Manchanda, Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Dhanush

Story & Direction -R. Balki

Cast -Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush, Akshara Haasan

Budget- 40 crores +P&A

You have to give it to the duo R.Balki and Amitabh Bachchan for being the most experimental pair in Bollywood. After making Bachchan romance a girl half his age in  Cheeni Kum(2007), and then making him play the role of a 12 year old in Paa (2009) the director presents Amitabh as a shabby alcoholic who lives in a graveyard and has a grudge against the society.
Dhanush plays the role of a small town guy who wishes to become a super star.
Akshara who makes his Bollywood debut with this film manages to hold her own in front of the two super stars.
There are catchy one liners like, 'Technology ko Mughle Azam pasand nahi aya kya' and 'Paani Needs Whisky,Whisky Ko Zaroorat Nahi  Kisiki' , but the humor gets lost in the slow and predictable story.
In the film there is a line,'Too classy, masses ko pasand nahi ayegi' holds true for the film too as though the film starts in a good speed after an hour it is reduced to just conversations between the three lead stars.  
In a line if you are a big Bachchan fan you will have to watch the film for his flawless acting and his chemistry with Dhanush.
Time-pass. Can be seen in theaters. 

Return of The Marketing Queen - Ek Villain

Release date - 27'th June 2014

One Word which describes the film - Psychotic

Best Dialogues -
Shraddha Kapoor-  'Jab tak hum kisi ke humdard nahi bante  ,tab tak hum dard se aur dard humse juda nahi hota.'

Riteish Deshmukh - 'Tum sabki nikalti jaan ke sath ..meri har chinta , sara stress bhi nikal jata hai.'

Sidharth Malhotra -'Main tuujhe marne nahi doonga lekin main tujhe roz maroonga ..ek baar nahi hazar baar maroonga.'

Genre - Thriller 

Music -Ankit Tiwari , Mithoon

Story - Milap Zaveri , Tushar Hiranandani

Producer - Ekta Kapoor ,Shobha Kapoor

Direction -Mohit Suri

Cast - Sidharth Malhotra ,Riteish Deshmukh ,Shraddha Kapoor ,Aamna Sharif

Budget- 30 Crores

Ekta Kapoor may have made a wrong decision when she decided to release Once Upon a Time In Mumbaai Dobara along with Rohit Shetty's Chenai Express. She broke her own rule of producing small budget films and spent almost 25 crorers in P&A taking the film's cost to 90 Crores which the film could not recover and was a huge flop. In the same year two other films co produced by Balaji Productions Lootera and Ek Thi Daayan also flopped at the box office. 

Ekta Kapoor said good bye to big budgeted films and again shifted her focus to medium budgeted films with peppy songs and lots of marketing.

Ragini MMS2 made on a budget of 20 crores earned 40 crores with it's two songs Babydoll and Char botal Vodka becoming big hits.
Ek Villain much before it's release managed to create a big buzz amongst the younger generations because of its romantic songs, 'Teri Galliyan' , 'Banjara' and ' Main Adhura.' Not only the film was promoted on reality shows , Ekta promoted it on her TV shows too. To cash in on the hit music a rock concert was also organised for the music launch.
Because of these rigorous promotional activities Ek Villain managed to get an opening of 65% which is quite huge considering Akshay Kumar's Holiday released in the same month got just a 30% opening.
It was shown on a show that Ekta Kapoor herself was shocked when the film crossed the 100 crores mark as she never expected it to be such a big hit.
Except the music and some scenes where Ritesh Deshmukh managed to create fear in the minds of the audience there was nothing much in the film. The story from the start was predictable.  
Sidharth  Malhotra should really start working on his acting skills as his other two co-students of the year Varun and Alia are way ahead than him.

In a line Indian film industry has started focusing more on show and publicity because of which the films lack in story and content and though they make money they fail to leave any mark on the viewers and are soon forgotten.
Note to Producers - Please make more films like A Wednesday , Sarfarosh , Border or DDLJ.

Review of shaadi ke side effects

Release date – 28'th February 2014

One Word which describes the film – Mundane

Best Dialogue - 'Meri galti hoti hai to main sorry bolta hoon, meri wife ki galti hoti hai to main sorry bolta hoon. Ladai hoti hi nahi .' 

Genre – Comedy/ Drama

Music – Pritam

Producer- Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
Pritish Nandy

Story & Direction -Saket Chaudhary

Cast - Farhan Akhtar , Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor , Vir Das , Ila Arun, Purab Kohli

Budget- 40 crores 

Saket Chaudhary made his directorial debut with  Pyaar Ke Side Effects (2006) . In this film he takes us to what happens after the romance , the candlelight dinners and the honeymoon is over. 

Farhan and Vidya are both talented actors and so we expected a lot of on screen fireworks on the screen. The film started in a good way showing great chemistry between the lead actors .But slowly as the love went away from their wedding , viewers also started losing interest. 

The main problem in the film is , the lack of well defined characters.

Farhan's character is confused most of the times and one can't understand whether he wants to be with his wife , his friends , wants alone time or wants to just watch a football match . 

Vidya since the start of the film is shabbily dressed and has no other work except for  having a baby , taking care of the baby , talking about that baby and then planning for another baby ! As if a housewife's life just revolves around a baby.

Purab Kohli , Vir Das and Ila Arun must have been added as after thoughts in the film as their presence took the film nowhere and after sometime they just made a silent exit from the film.

There were few good dialogues in the film like , "I felt like Sehwag. Ek do match kharab kya khele team se hi nikaal diya aur naya young, player rakh liya and ' doosro ke bacche and puppies sabko acche lagte hai ' but making a complete film just on the basis of few dialogues is not a very good idea.

In a line the film justifies its name and is like marriage which sometimes is sweet , sometimes exciting and sometimes so boring and mundane that we start wondering that were we better off as singles .  

Timepass . Can be seen in theaters.

Rank - 4 (Out of the 6 films I have seen in 2014)

Review of Lootera

Release date –5'th July 2013

One Word which describes the film – Soulful

Best  Dialogue – 'Pehli baar jab tumhe dekha , toh thodi der ke liye laga ki main mar gaya ' 

Genre – Romance /Drama

Story - Vikramaditya Motwane 

(based on "The Last Leaf" by O.Henry )

Music – Amit Trivedi

Producer - Anurag Kashyap , Ekta Kapoor , Shobha Kapoor , Vikas Bahl

Direction - Vikramaditya Motwane

Cast – Ranveer Singh , Sonakshi Sinha , Vikrant Massey ,Arif Zakaria , Adil Hussain

Budget - 35 crores ( approximately )

Lootera set in 1950's is the love story of a rich Zamindar's daughter and a young man who comes and stays at their home.
The film starts with a Ramleela scene where we are introduced to the two main characters of the film ,Pakhi  and her doting father the Zamindar of Manikpur. Pakhi is an artistic, strong willed girl who is not afraid of telling what her heart wants.
The Zamindar is worried because, post-independence the zamindari system has come to an end and he has to surrender his lands and precious artifects to the government.

The sets of the film look real with emphasis on minute details like the presence of a gramophone in the living room, antique furniture , vintage car, and an old radio playing songs of Dev Anand's film 'Baazi' . 

The second half shot in Dalhousie , captures the natural beauty of the town. 
So despite having good sets ,great music and above average actors why didn't the film appeal to the audience ?

All of us who have read 'The last leaf' , know it's a short story about two girls and an old painter who wishes to create a master piece. 

To convert this short story into a full fledged film the director converted it into a love story with lots of unnecessary tragedies and pathos. 

Sonakshi Sinha manages to give an award winning performance in the film. With her minimal makeup and rich sarees she looks like a rich heiress. In the second half her pale face and dark circles look so real that you feel pity for her.

Ranveer Singh's clean shaven look in first half wearing high waist trousers is quiet 1950's. Though , I wonder why most of his dialogues were dubbed in such a low voice that they were hardly audible.

In a line , the film is surely not made for the masses and has many slow sequences where you will get bored and  wonder when is it going to end.

Can be seen when is aired on TV .

Rank- 16 (out of the 35 films I have seen in 2013)

(You can read the story 'The Last Leaf ' here - http://www.online-literature.com/donne/1303/ )

Review of Shootout at Wadala

Release date – 3'rd May 2013 

One Word which describes the film – Triple A

Best  Dialogue – 

' Baadshah ki gali mein aake uska pata nahin poochhte. Ghulamo ke jhuke hue sar khud ba khud raasta bata dete hain.'

Genre – Action / Crime
 
Story - Sanjay Gupta , Hussain Zaidi ( Dongri to Dubai )

Music – Anu Malik , Mustafa Zahid , Anand Raj Anand , Nadeem Saifi , Anjjan Meet

Producer -  Sanjay Gupta , Anuradha Gupta ,Ekta Kapoor , Shobha Kapoor

Direction - Sanjay Gupta

Cast - John Abraham , Kangna Ranaut , Anil Kapoor , Tusshar Kapoor , Sonu Sood , Manoj Bajpai , Mahesh Manjrekar , Ronit Roy

Budget – 40 crores (approximately)

Sanjay Gupta is known for his dark thrillers { Kaante (2002),Musafir (2004) ,  Zinda (2005) } but this time he has come up with a film so full of violence , cuss words and sex that it can be considered as Bollywood's answer to XXX Films.

The film is based on the first ever police encounter and outlines the gang wars as it culminates into a three-way epic face-off between the gangsters,  Manya Surve , Haskar brothers and Mumbai police.

Sanjay Gupta who has returned to direction after 8 years has left no stone unturned to make this film a commercial hit. 
The main strength of the film is it's powerful dialogues written by Milan Zaveri . Every character has a couple of lines which make the audience whistle and clap for them .

John Abraham, as the main protagonist of the film gets the best dialogues , best action sequences and the chance to romance the sole heroine in the film Kangana Ranaut . Though in the start his dialogue delivery is flat but as he works on building his body in the prison there is also some improvement in his acting. So there are actually claps from the audience when he says 'haddi se lekar kanoon tak, sab todta hoon' 

Manoj Bajpai and Sonu Sood are perfect for the role of  Haskar brothers. They represent style and power with hidden cruelity which is shown when they kill another gangster with a fruit juicer.

Anil Kapoor as the police officer  who wants to get the city rid of gangsters has given an action  packed performance .He looks fit and smart and makes us wish there were more police officers like him in real life.

Sanjay Gupta's passion for perfection can be seen when he spends over Rs 2 crores only on shooting one sequence featuring an old BEST bus from the 70s. “The sequence would have cost us under under a crore, but we had to get a vintage bus which was not available and even when we managed to get one, it wasn’t allowed to enter Mumbai city. Because of that we had to shoot the sequence outside the city, which tripled our budget and we ended up spending more than Rs 2.6 crore,” said Gupta in an interview.

There are  three  item songs, where  Sunny Leone , Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Choudhry  seem to compete with each other in showing the maximum cleavage and doing the most provocative steps.

In a  line if you are over 18 and like gangster flicks there is no reason for you to avoid this film.
Good one time theater watch .
Rank- 9 (out of the 26 films I have seen in 2013)