Review of Sonchiriya

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Ranvir Shorey, Ashutosh Rana, Manoj Bajpai, Jatin Sarna

“Apni apni Sonchiriya, apni apni mukti.”

Sonchiriya, set in the Chambal of the seventies is a tale of rebellion, justice and salvation. There are several gangs of dacoits (called baaghi in the film) who live in Chambal and have their own set of principles. They question each other about the “dharma of the baaghi” but fail to give satisfactory answers.

There are fights between police and baaghis, within family members, between Gujjars and Thakurs and also between villagers and baaghis.

We are shown that the baaghis live a difficult life where there is no surety of life, they don't know when they will get food or where they will take shelter.  They know that surrender is not an option as mostly the police is going to shoot them at sight.
Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar and Ranveer Shourie are the soul of the film. They are so good in their respective roles that you actually sympathise with them even when you know the crimes they have committed and their dark secrets.

Manoj Bajpai and Ashutosh Rana outshine in their short roles.

In his earlier films like Ishqiya, Dedh ishqiya and Udta Punjab, Abhishek Chaubey has always shown strong female characters. Here though the females are shown as victims they do have that internal strength which makes them survivors.

There are only 3 female characters Indumati Tomar, Phulwa and the youngest of them named Sonchiriya but how these characters change the life of the others is what the film is about.

According to a female character, Phulwa, “Division according to caste is only for men and the women have a different caste which comes lowest in this social system.”

If you saw the film's trailer, you know that the film is not everyone's cup of tea.
Sonchiriya’s Trailer link-
https://youtu.be/aejAkKGiimk

The film starts with a shootout where many baaghis are encountered and throughout the film there is violence, bloodshed and elaborate fight sequences. There is hardly any entertainment for the family audience because of which despite good reviews the film couldn't do much business over the weekend.
It was released in 720 screens and collected just 4.5 Crores over the weekend which is nothing as compared to 32 Crores income of Luka Chuppi.

It’s a minor setback for the producers, RSVP films as they are still reaping money from their last release, URI, The Surgical Strike.

In a line, despite good performances by the lead actors, Sonchiriya couldn't attract much audience but may become a cult film with passage of time.

Can be seen in theatres if you like this genre.

Moh Maya Money~ In greed we trust

Release date- 25th Nov 2016

One Word which describes the film- Intriguing 

Best Dialogue-"Risk Hai To Profit Hai Na Yaar. Maroge Nahin To Swarg Kaise Jaoge?"

Genre- Crime/ Thriller

Music- Tuomas Kantelinen

Producer- Sandeep Narula

Story- Munish Bhardwaj, Mansi Nirmal Jain

Direction- Munish Bhardwaj

Cast- Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Vidushi Mehra, 

Budget- 5 Crores approximately

Moh Maya Money is the story of a real-estate broker Aman Mehra who is fed up of his middle class existence and aspires to become rich by hook or crook. He is overambitious and believes in doing all kind of deals whether in cash or cheque, black or white just to fulfill his greed. His motto in life is, "Ek Baar Bank Mein Paise Aa Gaye To Wapis Nahin Jaate, Adjust Ho Jaate Hain". Ranvir Shorey portrays the role of a Delhite effortlessly.
Neha Dhupia plays the role of Aman's wife. Her character looks simple and satisfied but afterwards we get to see shades of grey.  

The story is shown first from  Aman's perspective and then from his wife's perspective. There are too many twists which keep the viewers engrossed in the story. The climax will surprise you.

Munish Bharadwaj makes his directorial debut with the film. In this current scenario of demonetisation this white collar crime story is not only relevant but also fills us with nostalgia when we see Ranvir Shorey lying down on a bed with bundles of 500 and 1000 spread all around him.

The film was supposed to release on 11 th Nov along with Rock On 2 but because of the demonetization news it was postponed. As it was released along with the much publicized Dear Zindagi, it got very less screens. Many people are not even aware of it because of the less advertising budget.
In a line the film is about the desperate measures you take when your greed lands you knee deep in trouble.

Time pass.

Review of Bombay Talkies

Release date – 3'rd May 2013

One Word which describes the film – Average

Best  Dialogue – 'Har baat ko batane ka sahi samay hota hai'

Genre – Anthology of 4 short films  

Music – Amit Trivedi

Producer -  Viacom 18 Motion Pictures , Ashi Dua 

Direction - Anurag Kashyap , Dibakar Banerjee , Zoya Akhtar

Karan Johar

Cast -Amitabh Bachchan , Rani Mukerji , Katrina Kaif ,Randeep Hooda

Nawazuddin Siddiqui , Saqib Saleem ,Ranvir Shorey ,
Vineet Kumar Singh

Budget – 6 Crores

The film started with the melodious song 'Sau sau baras ka hua Yeh khiladi na budha hua.' playing in the background . 

Karan Johar's story was totally different from his usual candy-floss romances and larger than life sets. Here we  had a  freckled face Rani Mukherji dealing with the complexities in her married life. To express the underlying tension between characters, instead of dialogues Karan has used old classics 'Lag ja gale' and 'Ajeeb dastaan hai ye'.

Dibakar Banerjee's story is  about a failed actor who while watching a film shoot gets a chance  to do a small role  in it. There is a  scene where Nawaz  practices Big B’s famous dialogues for the role before he realizes that his character just had to say one word 'A' . After the initial  disappointment he tries saying the one word in different ways and styles . Nawazuddin is a talented actor and he should continue exploring new fields rather than working in dumb films like Aatma .


Zoya Akhtar 's story is about a young boy who wants to be a dancer like 'Sheila'  but plays football because his father wants him to. This story is kind of incomplete as there is confusion on whether Zoya wants to focus on the boy's feminism or his dancing skills .

Anurag Kashyap's story was the best of the lot. Unlike his other complex  films Black Friday (2004), Gulaal (2009), and Gangs of Wasseypur  this story was about a man from Allahabad who comes to Mumbai to fulfill his ailing father’s last wish. The highlight of the film is the hero Vineet who has given a range of expressions in his 20 min role. 

The weakest part of the film was the "Apna Bombay Talkies" song which had a number of film stars but was neither melodious nor a viewing pleasure.

In a line though the film is a tribute to 100 years of cinema, all the four stories  are far off  from epic  films like Mother India (1957)  Guide (1966) , Anand (1971) ,Deewar & Sholay (1975) ,Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) ,  Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) ,Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) etc which were universally loved  and  appreciated .
Time Pass .

Rank - 10 (Out of the 26 films I have seen in 2013)