Bollywood Report Card 2014

Top 5 must watch films of 2014 1. #Mardaani 2. #Queen 3. #PK 4. #Haider 5. #MaryKom

Critically Acclaimed films of 2014 (Receiving 3.5-5 stars from all critics) 1. #PK 2. #Queen 3. #Highway 4. #Citylights 5. #Filmistaan

Top 5 blockbusters of 2014
1. #Kick (Box Office collections- 233 crores) 2. #HappyNewYear (Box Office collections -203 crores) 3. #PK (Box Office collections - 198 crores, still running )
4. #BangBang (Box Office collections - 181 crores) 5. #SinghamReturns (Box Office collections -141 crores) 

Surprise Hits of 2014 1. #EkVillain 2. #2States 3. #Queen 4. #RaginiMMS2 5. #Yaariyan



Biggest Disappointments of 2014

1. #KillDil 2. #RevolverRani 3. #HappyEnding 4. #ActionJackson 5. #RajaNatwarlal

Ugly - It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World

Release date - 26'th December 

2014
One Word which describes the film -Dark

Best Dialogue - 

Chaitanya-'Sir,actor log aisa karte hai ki ghar par ek naam aur parde par doosra.'
Inspector Jadhav- Accha, to Amitabh Bachchan ka ghar ka naam kya hai.'

Genre - Suspense/Thriller 

Music -G. V. Prakash Kumar

Producer - DAR Motion Pictures, Phantom Films

Story & Direction -Anurag Kashyap

Cast -Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Girish Kulkarni, Siddhanth Kapoor, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Vipin Sharma, Surveen Chawla

Budget- 5-6 crores (approximately)

The film starts with a depressed and alcoholic woman contemplating ways to end her life. The first thought which comes in our mind is maybe she considers herself ugly. But slowly as the plot unfolds we come to know that the film is about the wicked ways of the world and how darkness resides inside every individual which overcomes all love and relations.

The story is about the people in the life of a woman, her daughter, her husband, her ex-husband, her brother and her friend. The woman's daughter disappears which lead to an array of events which show the selfishness, cruelty and wickedness of the lead characters.

Ronit Roy is perfect as the head of police detection unit. He is ruthless, shows no mercy and trusts no one. 

Rahul Bhat plays the role of a struggling actor. Though this is his first film he has given stiff competition to Ronit Roy in their scenes together.

Tejaswini is waiting for her Bollywood debut since 2000 but sadly her debut film Paanch, also directed by Anurag Kashyap was never released in theaters. She plays the role of a depressed housewife perfectly. 

Surveen Chawla is the eye candy of the film. 

Siddhant Kapoor has a small role and in one scene where he does a crazy dance he looks exactly like his father Shakti Kapoor.

Vineet Kumar plays the role of a casting director who plays an important role in the lives of the lead actors.

Marathi actor Girish Kulkarni is superb as Inspector Jadhav. His body language and expressions are just perfect. There is subtle humor in his scenes. 

With these characters Anurag has written an intriguing story where he takes us on a roller coaster ride through the streets of Mumbai where we go through different emotions and feelings which at times make us doubt the sanctity of various relations we make in our lifetime.

The film has all the features of a typical Kashyap film, lots of violence, abuses, drama, twists along with a strong message.

Ugly has been in news since last year as the Indian Censor Board required a "Smoking is Injurious to Health" sign to be flashed whenever a character in the film is shown smoking but Anurag Kashyap fought this regulation stating, ' It's the Health Ministry that should take the responsibility of curbing use of tobacco and work towards measures to control it and films should not be a medium to advertise non-smoking.'

Finally the film is released along with the statutory warning but Kashyap could not have chosen a worse time for release. The cold waves in the North kept the audience away from theaters and those who went chose to watch last week's much acclaimed release 'PK' 

In a line the film has a dark and disturbing story, full of violence and cuss words and is surely not meant for the romantics or weak-hearted.

Watch at your own risk. Can be seen if you like dark thrillers.

Review of PK

Release date - 19'th December 2014

One Word which describes the film -Heart-warming

Best Dialogue - 'Jo dar gaya wo mandir gaya.'

Genre -Comedy/Drama 

Music -Ajay Atul,Shantanu Moitra ,
Ankit Tiwari

Producer - Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story, Direction & Editing -Rajkumar Hirani

Cast -Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Dutt ,Sushant Singh Rajput

Budget- 50 crores +P&A 

PK was the most awaited film of 2014. Rajkumar Hirani uses his time tested formula of questioning the current system and providing an alternate solution.

The plot is simple, the characters are down to earth,there is no item song or exotic locations still the director manages to evoke emotions with the tale of a person who is not used to the corrupt ways of our world.

Amir Khan is the soul of PK. He is the wide eyed, big eared alien who manages to steal all attention with his weird dresses and innocent questions. The shooting of PK started in 2012 when a similar film OMG – Oh My God!  was released. Any other actor would not have dared working in a film with an almost similar story. It's Amir's belief in the director and his own acting capabilities that made him do this film.
Anushka Sharma as the young and enthusiastic journalist gives stiff competition to Amir and manages to leave an impact in the mind of the audiences.
Other characters have small roles which provide ample drama and keep us fully entertained.
As expected the film got a good opening day collection of 26 crores. With no competition and good word of mouth the film has the capability of earning 200 crores plus at the box office. 
Other superstars who are busy in just making money and working in forgettable films like Happy New Year, Kick, Happy Ending, Kill Dil, Bang Bang, Action Jackson should learn from Amir the art of choosing films which touch hearts and make a special place there forever. 

 In a line, though the story is simple but it's presentation is such that you will get attached to the characters and wish to have people like that in your life.

Must watch for Amir Khan fans. Paisa vasool. 

Review of Kill Dil - Style without Substance

Release date -14'th November 2014

One Word which describes the film - Musical

Best Dialogue - "Maarna hai to maaro. Ghoor ke mera time waste mat karo." 

Genre - Action/ Romance

Music -Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Producer - Aditya Chopra

Story & Direction -Shaad Ali

Cast -Govinda ,Ranveer Singh ,Ali Zafar ,Parineeti Chopra

Budget- 40 crores (Including P&A)

Director Shaad Ali made an impressive debut with Saathiya (2002) followed by Bunty Aur Babli(2005). In 2007 he totally antagonized the audience with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Everyone was eagerly waiting for his comeback film which had a bunch of talented actors. The promos were quite stylish, the music catchy and the film looked just perfect. The film starts with the bad guy Govinda and his boys humming and dancing to the title song. 

Govinda is the merciless bhaiyaji who can kill for money , can be generous or ruthless depending on his moods. He laughs on jokes, likes singing and dancing and plans his moves like an expert game master.

Ranveer and Ali are the modern 'Jai-Veeru'. They are stylishly attired through out the film, one in black other in white. Huge posters symbolizing their friendship are adorned on the walls of their house. They move around in bikes singing and dancing looking like cool dudes rather than killers. Most of their time is spent in styling their hair and drinking whiskey. 

Parineeti plays the role of a rich girl who instead of joining her father's business decides to help the criminals in rehabilitating themselves. During the whole film she is only playing the part of a rich girl who visits night clubs in skimpy dresses or is lazying in the pool or is just painting the town red in her sports car. The characters are well defined and the film starts in a good way with some action scenes and good dialogues. But after 15 minutes the film loses its speed ,there is no plot and the only action shown is the lead actors putting bullets on their target .

The director has paid so much attention on characterisation and style that he totally forgot that there should be a good story to bind the characters together.After every 10 minutes there is a new song and it looks as if everyone is just waiting to find an excuse to dance. Though the background music is good and the songs are melodious but still a film should have a good screenplay to keep the viewers engrossed till the end.

There were huge expectations from the film and despite being released in 2500 plus screens the film just had a 25% opening (6-7 crores ). It will be a big task for the film to even cross the 30 crore mark .

In a line if you are a very big Govinda / Ranveer fan then also it will be a task for you to watch this 2 hr film in theater.

Avoidable. Watch the promos and endless songs on you tube and save money.

Review of Happy New Year

Release date - 24'th October 2014

One Word which describes the film - Over-the-top

Best Dialogue -Duniya mein do tarah ke log hote hai,winners and losers...
Lekin zindagi har loser ko vo ek mauka zaroor deti hai jisme wo winner ban sakta hai.

Genre- Heist/Musical/Dance/Drama/Patriotic

/Comedy

Music - Vishal Shekhar

Producer - Gauri Khan

Story & Direction -Farah Khan

Cast -Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah

Budget- 80 crores + P&A

Film making which was earlier considered an art has now been reduced to strategic planning and marketing. 

Shahrukh Khan the king of romance has now turned into SRK the business man whose main focus is to recover the money put into the film by his production company. Before the film's release Happy New Year had already made profits through the film's promotional tour SLAM.

The film was released in almost 4500 screens in India and 500 screens abroad which in itself is a record. The timing of the film was perfect. Because of Diwali holidays and competition from no other film Happy New Year had a grand opening of 45 crores on Friday. In 6 days the film has collected close to 150 crores. 

Happy New Year is Farha Khan's magnum opus. After the super failure of Tees Mar Khan Farha realised that only SRK ,the king of marketing can project her superfluous films as entertainers and help her recover her lost money.

I would like to mention that Farha Khan is not a bad director, her vision is good, it's just that while turning the vision into reality she has a tendency of going over the top. Her films are too colorful, the sets are unnecessarily huge, even the bar where the heroine dances looks more like a Broadway theater. She turns even a 50 year old bald guy with a beer belly into a stud who is pursued by a line of women which is too hard to digest. She doesn't spare even her brother and project him as a stupid director. The story is predictable from the start still she takes 2 hours 59 minutes & 50 seconds to unfold the events in a TV serial kind of way which make people doze during some scenes.  

We know that she is talented as every time she comes up with a new idea to list the end credits, the problem is we have to bear the full film to see that 5 minutes of pure fun.

The film is a visual delight for Shah Rukh fans. In the first half he finds ample opportunities to show his eight packs. In the second half he goes clean shave and we get glimpses of the young Raj /Rahul who stole hearts of women of all ages. 

Deepika Padukone looks pretty and does justice to the small role given to her. 

Abhishek Bachchan 's acting is being appreciated by the critics and audiences. There is one scene where we get to see Farha's sense of humor. 

Nandu-  Charlie bhai , Mere se nahi hoga, mereko wapas bhejo

Charlie: Nandu , Tum akele nahin ho, Johnny Bhai bhi tumhare saath hain ,apni left pocket main dekho ( The camera focuses on a small Johnny Walker bottle).

Sonu Sood gets equal opportunity to show his abs . Boman Irani and Vivaan Shah have  acted well . 

The team in all is good and their reaching till the semi finals of the World Dance Competition as a wild card entry was OK but what happened afterwards is just Farha's exaggerated way of making everything end happily as she strongly believes that

' Hamari zindagi mein bhi end tak sab kuch theek hi ho jata hain, happies ending, aur agar theek na ho to woh 'the end' nahin, picture abhi baki hain mere dost.'

In a line even though the film is too long ,too dramatic,too full of songs but still there is something for everyone and is entertaining in parts.

One time watch. 

Review of Dawat-e-Ishq

Release date - 19'th September 2014

One Word which describes the film - Uncomplicated

Best Dialogue - Humari country main jabh tak black nahi diya tabh tak ghar nahi kahrid sakte, Dahej nahi diya toh shaadi nahi hoti.

Genre - Comedy/ Drama

Music -Sajid-Wajid

Producer - Aditya Chopra

Story & Direction -Habib Faisal

Cast -Aditya Roy Kapur ,Parineeti Chopra, Anupam Kher, Karan Wahi

Budget- 35 crores

Habib Faisal made his directorial debut with Do Dooni Chaar in 2010  followed by Ishaqzaade (2012).

This time he gives us another comedy drama which revolves around two simple hearted people who love good food and have their individual dreams in life.

The first half of the film is shot in Hyderabad and has Hyderabadi dialect. The second part shot in Lucknow has Hindi mixed with Urdu.

Anupam Kher and Parineeti Chopra share a good father daughter chemistry. The hero makes his entry quite late and afterwards too has nothing much to do except chop vegetables, serve food ,sing songs and dance.

The songs are quite like those of the 90's and hardly manage to leave any impact.

The basic problem in the film is that the story just keeps on going on and on without any twists and turns. There is no element of surprise and while you are watching one scene you can easily predict what will happen in the next scene.

If the hero was Salman Khan then even this film could have been a blockbuster but as Aditya Roy Kapoor hardly has any fan following it would be quite a task for the film to even recover its production and marketing budget.

In a line though this daawat doesn't promise any gourmet cuisine , the simple flavored love story may make you smile at places.

Time pass. Can be seen in theaters at your own risk. 

Coming soon - Review of Raja Natwarlal

Release date -29'th August 2014

One Word which describes the film -

Best Dialogue - 'Risk aur oopportunity ke beech main hi to chance milta hai aur jo us chance ke sath romance karta hai wohi asli raja kehlata hai.'

Genre - Crime / Comedy

Music -Yuvan Shankar Raja

Producer - Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story-Parveez Shaikh

Direction -Kunal Deshmukh

Cast -Emraan Hashmi ,Humaima Malick ,Paresh Rawal ,Kay Kay Menon

Budget- 30-35 crores

Raja Natwarlal was originally called Shaatir. Pakistani actress and model Humaima Malick makes her debut in Bollywood with this film.

Director ,Kunal Deshmukh started his career as an assistant director in Zeher (2005), Kalyug and Woh Lamhe (2006), under director Mohit Suri and Vishesh Films.He made his directional debut Jannat in 2008 followed by Tum Mile (2009) and Jannat 2 (2012).