Katti Batti ~ Old wine in a new bottle

Release date - 18'th September 2015

One Word which describes the film - Nostalgic

Best Dialogue - 'Ek average insan ka dil 4 bar tootta hai. Pyar se jyada Pyar ka dard bikta hai.'

Genre - Romance/ Comedy

Music -Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Producer - Siddharth Roy Kapur
Nikhil Advani

Story - Anshul Singhal

Direction - Nikhil Advani

Cast -Imran Khan , Kangana Ranaut , Vivan Bhatena, Suhaas Ahuja

Budget - 30 Crore approximately

Katti Batti is an Indian romantic comedy film directed by Nikhil Advani. 

Imran Khan was always Nikhil's  first choice for the hero's role in Katti Batti but many heroines said no to working opposite him. As Nikhil was also directing Salman Khan's home production Hero, finally Salman Khan convinced Kangana to do Payal's role. 

Kangana is currently the reigning queen of Bollywood and she has herself claimed in many interviews that she is the highest paid actress. Her presence in the film was supposed to give the film a very good opening but guess Imran Khan's bad luck is much stronger than Kangana's charm.

Katti Batti is a hero-centric film where we have a guy who is truly madly and deeply in love with a girl. After few days of meeting her he tells her that 'Tumhe mujhse jyada pyar koyi nahi karega, kar hi nahi sakta.' 
When he proposes to her the heroine casually tells him, 'Abhi to maine college ke sare ladke dekhe bhi nahi hai sacche pyar ka mood nahi hai, time pass chalega?'
It's a sweet love story with lots of funny, emotional and intense moments. The only problem is most of the scenes of the film seem inspired from other films. As soon as you know that the hero is called Madhav 'Maddy' you are instantly reminded of the other Maddy from Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein(2001). As the film progresses you are reminded of other hit films like  Sweet November (2001), Break Ke Baad (2010),  Pyaar Ke Side Effects,  (500) Days of Summer(2009) , Salaam Namaste(2005) ,  Love Aaj Kal (2009) etc.
After interval we are introduced to a character Roger who has a band called ' FOSLA' the concept of which was introduced in the 'Dum laga ' song from the film 'Dil Dosti Etc' which goes like..
'Baar Baar Hum Pyaar Pyaar Me Maar Maar Kyun Khaate Hain?

Frustrate Hokar Nile Filme Dekhane Kyun Jaate Hain?

Pyar Nahi Hain Tuzko Pandit, Kuch Toh Hain Bimari,
Abe Professor Ke Saali Ko Aankh Kisane Maari?

Chaska Par Taala Lagta…
Chup Be Fosle, Frustrated One Sided Lover’s Association!'

Music is average. There are two love songs which have good lyrics but because of poor advertising and bad reviews they have less scope of staying in the mind of the viewers.

Reallly loved the lyrics of 'Ove Janiya' and 'Sau Aasoon'

'Sau aansoo roye do akhiyan

Maara hai jinhe neendon ne

Kabhi na soye wo akhiyan.'

Imran Khan has given a wonderful performance and you will really sympathize with him. There are scenes where his pain feels too real and you will feel tears in your eyes. Other times his love will pass on to you and you can't stop smiling.

Kangana had less scope of showing her acting talents in this film as the film basically revolves around Imran's life, his office, his friends, his love story where she is just the girlfriend. She gets to experiment with various hairstyles and looks pretty.

Thefilm collected approximately 5.5 crores on the first day which is good considering it's low budget.

In a line the film is a mocktail of various love stories which may appeal to die hard romantics but is surely not for the cynics.

Time-pass. Can be seen in theaters if you can get over your aversion of Imran Khan.

Hero ~ Great Expectations Quashed

Release date - 11'th Sep 2015

One Word which describes the film - Disappointing

Best Dialogue - 'Main bhale hi Radha se door ho jaun, par zindagi bhar usi se pyar karunga. Koi rok sake to rok le.'

Genre - Romance/Action

Music -Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan, Sachin-Jigar

Producer - Salman Khan, Subhash Ghai

Story - Based on Hero by Subhash Ghai

Direction - Nikhil Advani

Cast - Sooraj Pancholi, Athiya Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, Tigmanshu Dhulia

Budget- 35 Crores approximately

In the 90's there came a flood of romantic films and along with it a lot of new heroes like Salman, Amir, Saif, Akshay and Ajay Devgan. In 25 years the quality of the films and the tastes of the audiences changed but we still get to see the same 45 plus heroes romancing new heroines.

Sooraj Pancholi came as a breath of fresh air, an innocent face, well chiseled body, good dancing skills and a nice voice. Athiya Shetty looked like a younger version of Sonam Kapoor, same height, same body language, chirpy voice and exactly no expressions on her face even in the most bizarre situations.

So these were the two debutantes with whom Salman Khan decided to make a film without any concern for the budget. Hero is the second film under the banner of Salman Khan Films after the blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan and is the remake of Hero (983) directed by Subhash Ghai so obviously there were huge expectations from the film.

Sooraj is shown as a hot blooded small time gunda who spends half of his time in the gym and the other half in fighting with shady characters and helping the needy. When he made his entry one of the goons said , ' Hero ki tarah enttry mari hai to khud ko hero samajhne laga hai?'

Athiya is the pampered girl of IG Mathur who loves partying, clubbing, clicking selfies and dancing.

The film started in a good way and the innocent love between the youngsters looked quite real. But lack of proper screenplay and absence of powerful dialogues soon made the film too dull and boring.

Whereas in the original film Meenakshi gets to say dialogues like, Pyar ek imtihaan hai, aur nateeje se darne waalo ka pyar jhoota hota hai' in this film Athiya says lines like,'Agar aapne mujhe isilye mara kyunki main Suraj se pyaar karti hoon to mujhe phir se maariye.' 

Tigmanshu Dhulia plays the role of  IGP Shrikanth Mathur which was played by Late Shammi Kapoor . He looks tired and exhausted in most  of the scenes and the only dialogue which you will remember once the film ends is,'Beta mujhe Sir nahi Daddy kaho .' After playing a powerful character like Ramadhir Singh in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and directing the award winning  Paan Singh Tomar(2012), Tigmanshu should stay away from doing such films.

Aditya Pancholi plays the role of Pasha which was done by Late Amrish Puri in the original film. He is shown in silken kurtas and freshly laundered dhotis which make us wonder that in which prisons such facilities are given. His dialogues of taking revenge from those who have wronged him sound too real but in the full film we hardly get to see his words turning to action.

When Amrish Puri said,' Mere hi kutte ne mujhe kaata' there was disgust and seething anger in his voice but Aditya saying,'15 saal ka pyar 15 din mai hi bhool gaya, sounded more like a plea for help. That's the power of dialogues and their effect on the viewers.

The only dialogue which had an impact was when Athiya says,'Pyar karne wale kabhi darte nahi, jo darte hain wo pyar karte nahi', which we all know is a hit song from the original film.

In an interview Salman admitted that releasing the music just a week prior to the film's release wasn’t a great idea. Because of Salman's popularity the "Main Hoon Hero Tera" sung by him became a hit but other songs despite being melodious failed to click with the audience.

In a line Hero has Zero chances of being another super-hit film and this is that one film which even loyal Salman Khan fans will give a miss.

Not worth spending money on. Can be seen when is aired on TV.

Welcome Back ~ Good dialogues in a Bad story

Release date - 4'th September 2015

One Word which describes the film - Hilarious

Some of the LOL Dialogues - 

John Abraham- 'Mobile uska, sim apun ka .. tu beech mein missed call dene waala kaun.'

John's friend- 'Bhabhi ne aapko Emraan Hashmi samjha aur aap Amol Palekar nikley.' 

Anil Kapoor - 'Aapki sharafat ke chakkar mein main kayde mein hoon, warna ab tak mere khud ke do char Al-Qaiday hote

Nana Patekar- 'Majnu, mai samajh gaya hoon is duniya mai do hi cheezo ki keemat hai, ek to zameeno ki doosri kameeno ki.'

Naseeruddin Shah- 'Yaha ke kanoon bhi hum hai aur andhe bhi hum hai.'

Music -Meet Bros Anjjan, Anu Malik, Mika Singh, 

Producer - Firoz Nadiadwala

Story- Anees Bazmee, Rajiv Kaul

Dialogues - Raaj Shaandilyaa (dialogues)

Direction -Anees Bazmee

Cast -Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Paresh Rawal, Shruti Haasan, Dimple Kapadia, Ankita Shrivastava, Shiney Ahuja

Budget- 65-70 Crores

It's always a low risk proposition to make a sequel of a hit film as the audience is already familiar with the characters and those who loved the first one enthusiastically wait for the next. It took 8 years for this sequel to hit the theaters and to refresh the memory of the viewers the narrator shows flash backs from Welcome(2007). In these years the feared Bhais have become 'shareef ' and 'pehle jinke naam ka sikka chalta tha ajkal unke not bhi log chura ke le jate hai.'
Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar are the heart and soul of this film.They have great on screen chemistry and have given a wonderful performance. In the second half when the story becomes really slow and boring it's their acting and expressions which keeps the audience rooted to their seats.
John Abraham may have made a lot of progress as a producer but as an actor his face is expressionless and his dialogues flat. He gets ample opportunity to show his fit body and thus keeps his fans happy.
Shruti Haasan gives tough competition to John and stays expressionless throughout the film. Her dialogue delivery is even worse than John. More attention is paid on her dresses and hairstyles than on her acting.
New actress Ankita has a meatier role than Shruti and gets more scenes to show her body of work (pun intended) . Right from her costumes to her dialogues to her co-actors, she got a better deal and so manages to outshine Shruti.
Paresh Rawal, Dimple Kapadia and Naseeruddin Shah have significant roles in the film and have done their best.
Shiny Ahuja's comeback in a small insignificant role was not a very wise decision as now he has totally lost all chances of being casted as a hero or even as a supporting hero in any good film.
The first of the film is quite entertaining and you will laugh in most of the scenes. After interval because of the lack of story and presence of too many characters the film starts losing steam and we wonder what new twist will be presented to us. The climax totally disappoints.
The highlight of the film without any doubt is it's dialogues written by Raaj Shaandilyaa. Raaj who makes his Bollywood debut has earlier written for Comedy Circus and Comedy Nights with Kapil.
The film is mostly shot in 5 star hotels. In most of the scenes we are shown plush rooms with golden sofas, big chandeliers and rich surroundings. When the characters move out of their luxurious rooms they sit in their Ferrari, Rolls-Royce or Mercedes.
There is a medley of songs in this film but none of the song is melodious or has lyrics worth mentioning.
The film was released in 3200 screens and despite bad reviews it managed to earn above 50 crores over the weekend. After the poor performances of Brothers, All is Well and Phantom this film has come as a breath of relief for the distributors thus proving that in India there is a good market for brainless comedies. 

In a line if you don't pay much attention to the story the Uday Shetty and Majnu duo will surely keep you entertained.

Time-pass. Can be seen in theaters. 

Phantom ~ The world of Kabir Khan, where fiction merges with reality.

Release date - 28'th August 2015

One Word which describes the film - Optimistic

Best Dialogue - ' Aap pooch rahe the kya chahta hai India, India insaaf chahta hai.'

Genre - Action/ Thriller

Music - Pritam Chakraborty

Producer - Sajid Nadiadwala, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story- Kabir Khan, Kausar Munir (Based on Mumbai Avengers by Hussain Zaidi)

Direction -Kabir Khan

Cast -Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub

Budget- 50 Crores approximately

Kabir Khan made his directorial debut in 1999 with the documentary 'The Forgotten Army' , based on Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Since then he has constantly tried to bring to limelight the strength of character and courage of Indians in front of the whole world by making films which are full of patriotism and the never say die attitude of the central characters.
Whether it was Kabul Express (2006), New York (2009), Ek Tha Tiger (2012) or Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) all his films will make you think that sometimes innocent people become mere pawns in the game of few corrupt people who have both power and money.

There is undoubtedly a lot of pressure that comes with recognition, which can be a good thing and bad thing all at the same time.

After Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan became the most successful film of 2015, people were just waiting to find some fault in his next film. I also went with mixed feelings as had read many negative comments from everyone basically saying that the film is overall boring.

Phantom begins with a car chase in Chicago. From there we are taken to the office of the Indian R.A.W. chief, then to the snowy peaks of Kashmir, then to London, then to Beirut, then to a Syrian refugee camp and finally to a small town in Malerkotla, Punjab which was recreated using Urdu hoarding, posters and flags to resemble a Pakistani town. I don't know how people can get bored in such a happening journey.

We all know that the film deals with the master minds behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks who are still living freely in some part of the world.

Any operation deals with three basic steps, the plan, it's execution and then the return to safety. The film has a very well written script and the first half of the film has a good pace. The second half of the film which takes us to a Pakistani town is a bit slow, has few songs and several scenes which will touch your heart and fill you with pride. The only flaw in the perfect story was that the execution of the plan happened too abruptly and the return to safety took too long.

Saif Ali Khan in the titular role had ample opportunity to show his talents. He has given a good performance considering how difficult it's for him to get rid of his rich guy attitude and accent.  

I don't know whose idea was it to name a beautiful lady like Katrina Kaif, Nawaz. All through the film her attire were simple and very less attention was paid on glamorizing her so that the focus of the film doesn't shift from the graver issues.

After giving a forgetful performance in All is Well, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is back in form and how. His role is small but he represents all us Indians who are full of anger and frustration and wish there is some way in which a lesson can be taught to the wrong doers.

Music is average. The film has a soulful song "Saware"  sung by Arijit Singh.

The film was released in 2500 screens and due to bad reviews got a poor opening. By the end of the day because of good word of mouth the film managed to collect almost 8

cr on Friday, 13 Crores on Saturday and 12 Crores on Sunday. With Welcome Back releasing this week the film will surely not get a chance to enter the 100 Crore club but it will surely recover it's production costs.

In a line the film is full of hope and optimism and you will surely wish that all of it was true. 

Good one time watch. Can be seen in theaters.