Review of Race 2

Release date - 25'th  January 2013

One Line which describes the film –  The Bold and the Beautiful 

Best  Dialogue – "badla jitna purana hota hai
utna hi khatarnak hota hai "”

Genre - Action / Thriller 
 
Story - Shiraz Ahmed

Music – Pritam ,  Atif Aslam

Producer -  Ramesh S. Taurani , Ronnie Screwvala , Siddharth Roy Kapur

Direction - Abbas-Mustan

Cast - Saif Ali Khan , Deepika Padukone , John Abraham , Jacqueline Fernandez , Anil Kapoor , Ameesha Patel

Budget –  50 crores  approximately

Race (2008)  is considered as one of the best suspense Bollywood thriller. Every character had shades of grey and hidden agendas up their sleeve . The manner in which the twists and turns were executed the viewers felt themselves enjoying  a roller coaster ride.  

Race 2  has double doses of hot long legged females , bare chested hunks  , casinos , yachts , Lamborghinis , Audis ,  exotic locations in Istanbul , even the money at stake is in billions of Euros .

Saif is the back bone of the film and the full story revolves around him , his friends, his enemies, his conquests and  his plans for revenge . There is a scene filmed at  Armaan-Aleena’s yacht which reminds us of a  dialogue from the director duo earlier film Baazigar (1993) "haar ke jeetne wale ko Baazigar kehte hai" .

Though the blast and chase sequence in Cyprus had Saif doing such weird action stunts that we felt like we were watching some animated scene. Another hard to believe sequence is when Saif diffuses a bomb from under a fast moving car amidst huge traffic . 

John is good in the role of a ruthless business tycoon for whom nothing holds more importance than money. He also gets to show his well built muscles and eight packs (or more) in  a street fight organised by Aditya Pancholi who plays the role of Godfather Hamza .   

Deepika and Jacqueline competed with each other in who dares to bare more and Deepika wins the race by a good margin . 

Anil Kapoor’s  character plays no significant role in the film . He tells lame shape of a banana kind of jokes to his secretary which hardly add  any humor to the film.

Ameesha as the dim-wit secretary whose only purpose in life is to sleep with the Boss looks  pathetic . We really expect more from the actress who once gave us power packed performances in  Gadar: Ek Prem Katha  and   Humraaz .

  

The makers have ended the film with a dialogue “ Race jahan par khatam hoti hai wahi se shuru bhi hoti hai”  indicating the possibilities of a part 3 in future . The film has collected more than 50 crores in 3 days indicating the film has clicked with the audience. I just hope the sequel focuses more on the story and less on the glamour quotient .

In a line though the film is nowhere close to Race , it still has a few twists and is a fast paced entertainer  . Good one time watch . 

Rank- 4   (Out of the 12 Films I have seen in 2013 )

Review of Inkaar

Release date - 18'th January'13 

One Word  which describes the film – "Emotional Atyachar"

Best  Dialogue – "Aaj to main aapki chaar baaten sunne ke baad  ruk jaaonga par uske baad mera beta meri ek na sunega "

Genre - Drama

  
Story - Manoj Tyagi

Music – Shantanu Moitra

Producer -  Viacom 18 Motion Pictures

Direction -  Sudhir Mishra

Cast - Arjun Rampal , Chitrangada Singh , Deepti Naval

Budget – 15- 20 crores (approximately)

Mark Twain said that "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Sudhir Mishra's film on sexual harassment at the work place is based on a case of sexual harassment filed by the National Creative Head of an advertising agency against the CEO of the same company.

The film starts with the shot of a  the committee set up by the agency to hear both sides of the story and work through the layers of lies and accusations to find out who's really telling the truth and who's lying . 
The film in flash back covers a span of 7 years where we are told about how  the two actors met, their changing relationships over the years , their career graph etc.

Arjun Rampal has acted well and looks perfect as the young and ambitious CEO who thinks that if men and women are working in the same office there is bound to be some harmless flirtations which is actually healthy for the work envoirnment. 

Chitrangada was recently voted as the celebrity having the best hair. In the film she has used different hairstyles to show her transformation  from a budding copy righter  to the  youngest member of the board of directors of an advertising firm. 

The promos of the film where a hot Chitrangada tells a cool Arjun that  “Main aisi hoon nahin, I won’t sleep with you.”  and the news that the film producers changed some words so that the film promo got a U certificate did create a buzz for the film .
It was my love for Sudhir Mishra's Yeh Saali Zindagi (2011)   which made  me go to the theaters with huge expectations . For half an hour the film did manage to hold my attention, but by interval it became so monotonous that we were wondering what the director wanted to show us . I read that director Sudhir Mishra wrote three scripts for the film to make sure that the film went exactly like he had envisioned. If this is true then I think the director was so confused with the scripts that even after we have seen the complete film we wonder who was telling the truth, who was lying , why they were lying and what was the film actually about , their professional lives or private lives.

The film had 5 min of bold acts but watching the remaining 2 hours of the film is sheer torture .

In  a line Inkaar has none of the  power games we saw  in  Corporate or  the love , lust and drama which we loved in  Aitraaz . Avoidable .

Rank- 8  (Out of the 11 films I have seen in 2013 )

Review Of Matru ki bijli ka mandola

Release date - 11’th Jan 2013

One Word which describes the film – Eccentric

Best  Dialogue – "Bapu, ab main samajh gayi tu sharab kyon peeta hai, iske nashe main sacchai kadwi nahi lagti "

Genre -  Drama / Comedy
 
Story -  Vishal Bhardwaj , Abhishek Chaubey

Music – Vishal Bhardwaj

Producer - Vishal Bhardwaj , Fox Star Studios

Direction -  Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast - Imran Khan , Anushka Sharma , Pankaj Kapoor , Arya Babbar , Shabana Azmi

Budget -40 crore   

The first big budget film of the year is a dark comedy which focuses on the  the farmers of the country who are under big debts and the industrialists who with the help of corrupt politicians want to take the poor farmers ' lands to make Special Economic Zones.

The film starts with a shot of a stretch limousine crashing into a bar in the middle of a wheat field with Mr Mandola saying that "Gulabo andar , Hariya bahar " . It's only after sometime that we come to know that Gulabo is the name of the local whiskey brand which transforms Mr Mandola , an ambitious ,insatiably greedy industrialist with capitalist ambitions  into a generous socialist Hariya who provokes the villagers to take a morcha against himself.

After that the film goes on till interval  in a confusing way with lots of characters who are not given any proper introduction .

There is Mandola's servant Matru who has studied Law in the city & wishes to lead a movement one day. Imran Khan has shed his lover boy image and has put on the rustic look . I think this is Imran's best performance till date. He has put on the perfect Haryanvi accent and body language and is comfortable in acting with a veteran actor like Pankaj Kapoor.

There is Mandola's Oxford retrurn daughter who in Matru's words has a Meena Kumari complex  .Anushka Sharma is clearly still in the Jab tak hai jaan phase as she roams around in the big haveli and village in micro shorts which totally seem very out of place in the Haryanvi set up.

Then come the  corrupt minister, Chaudhari Devi (played by Shabana Azmi) who thinks that " jab hamari pragati hogi tabhi to desh ki unnati hogi" and her dim-wit son Baadal (played by Arya Babbar) .

We can't control our laughs when she compares her son with sons of other politicians "Yahi farak hai tum mein aur Rahul, Sachin aur Jyotiraditya mein!" 

Badal and his friends exchange lame Knock-Knock jokes which I think is a dig at the current generation.

Last but not the least there are the numerous villagers ,and the only thing which made the kids smile 'the gulabi bhains '.

After a dragging first half the film catches speed in the  second half but most of the audience was so bored that they didn't pay much attention to the subtle humor or realistic story.

In a line the film has a very good message , though we hope the director had  scripted it in a better way . 

Must watch for Pankaj Kapur fans .Can be seen in theaters .

Rank- 5  (Films I have seen in 2013 )

Review of Table No. 21

Release date - 4’th Jan 2013

One Line which describes the film – 

"Karma is a bitch"

Best  Dialogue – “ Admi shauk ke liye doosre ko marta hai, admi aur janvar main yahi fark ki janvar shauk nahi palte”

Genre -  Suspense / Thriller
 
Story -  Sheershak Anand , Aditya Datt , Abhijit Deshpande , Shantanu Ray

Music – Gajendra Verma 

Producer - Vicky Rajani , Sunil Lulla

Direction -  Aditya Datt

Cast - Paresh Rawal , Rajeev Khandelwal , Tena Desae

Budget – 10- 15 crores (approximately )

The film starts with the exotic Fiji island where the couple is on a vacation. They meet Paresh Rawal there who charms them to play a game where they can win 21 crores  by answering 8 questions and performing tasks related with the questions.

The first half of the film is fast and thrilling and keeps us busy in expecting what's going to come next . In between the film gives us a glimpse of the lives of the lead actors. 

The suspense which was revealed in the end was surely not what we expected and it did made us think on how some irrational actions can destroy lives.

Rajiv Khandelwal 's role had different shades and he has given a good performance. 

Paresh Rawal is a fine actor . As the ruthless game master he scares us in some scenes and keeps us captivated.  

Debutante Tena who has done everything from wearing a bikini to smooching , manages to leave an impact on the viewers. In some parts of the film she resembles Priyanka Chopra , in  the college scenes she resembles Genelia Desouza and with the  running eye liner and mascara she can be easily mistaken for Kangana Ranaut. When her character tells  Paresh "The person who said that money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop " we see  how superficial and shallow people are until they come to know that death is the ultimate reality .

In a line very few people can claim that they have never lied , cheated or manipulated people , so watch the film and maybe it inspires you to rectify your actions before it's too late.

Can be watched in theaters .

Rank- 4  (Films I have seen in 2013 )