Badrinath ki Dulhaniya~ The formula of a hit film, one dose of Feminism mixed with one dose of women empowerment and a pinch of random fun and humour

Release date - 10th March 2017

One Word which describes the film- 

Over-the- top

Best Dialogue - 'Are ye tedha munh karke kyo smile kar rahe ho, Shahrukh Khan ho kya?'

Genre - Romance / Comedy

Music- Amaal Malik, Tanishk Bagchi

Producer - Karan Johar

Story & Direction -Shashank Khaitan

Cast- Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt

Budget- 50 crores (approximately)

Gone are the times when you needed a very innovative or unique story to make a hit film. In 2016, most of the films which performed well at the box office had simple plots, had a female protagonist or dealt with women empowerment.

Badrinath ki Dulhania is a sequel to Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya(2014), which was a moderate hit.

Badrinath looks at Vaidehi and falls in love with her. His only target in life is to marry her.

Vaidehi is a career oriented woman who wants to be the son her parents never had. 

The story is a typical masala film which you must have seen 100 times and seasoned viewers will easily predict what is going to happen next.

Like Humpty Sharma there are more moments of friendship and comfort between the lead pair than any sizzling chemistry.

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt have given excellent performances and have some how tried to make the slow film interesting with their comic timing and intense expressions.

The dialogues are not what you will remember after the film, it's the silent exchanges between the lead pair who have become the most bankable stars of current times.

The film has many supporting characters who have done justice to their small roles.

The film was released in 2700 screens and has managed to earn around 12 Crores on Friday. This figure is greater than the 2016 Varun Dhawan & John Abraham starrer, Dishoom which was a much bigger film with a higher budget and marketing expenses.

In a line, though the film is not about some epic romance or great love, the good performances manage to keep the viewers entertained.

Good one time watch. Time-pass.

Commando 2~ Double Trouble!

Release date- 3rd March 2017

One Word which describes the film - Directionless

Best Dialogue - "Itni ghatiya team chuni hai to irade to nek ho nahi sakte."

Genre - Action

Music- Mannan Shah

Producer-Vipul Shah

Story- Ritesh Shah

Direction- Deven Bhojani

Cast - Vidyut Jamwal, Adah Sharma, Freddy Daruwala, Esha Gupta, Adil Hussain

Budget- 25-30 Crores approximately

The film starts with Vidyut Jamwal making his entry into a deserted building where he kills 25-30 people single handedly, jumps through floors, slides through narrow openings, breaks bones and then asks his junior to shoot him twice, one just under the liver and the other on his right leg, so that he can justify the encounter he is about to do.

After this came more such scenes where the hero is jumping or sliding under cars or sliding down walls, like a lizard. 

In Commando( 2013), Vidyut Jamwal made his presence felt because of his unique action skills but here his action stunts without a proper story look so unintentionally funny that we can't decide what the director is trying to show.

The film even has a prologue about Modi's demonetisation drive and ends with a rosy picture of a scenario where the black money is brought to India as if the director wanted to be in the Prime minister's good books.

To add to an already weak screenplay and story there was this "Commando Commando" background music along with every action stunt which was so irritating that it made several people from the audience leave the theatre much before interval.

Vidyut Jamwal is the only saving grace of this film. He looks fit but how seriously can you take a hero who says dialogues like, "Single single mat lo, chauka maaro. Come on, get me excited", while interrogating a criminal.

Adah Sharma as Hyderabadi-based Bhawna Reddy looks good at the start but soon her actions and accent start getting repetitive and boring. She moves around in small dresses and 4 inches heels and then says that she comes from a very poor place where they had to pay bribe even for water.

Freddy Daruwala has nothing much to do and maintains a non interested look through-out the film.

Esha Gupta with her skin tight dresses and painted lips looks like a mannequin. She can't act and I wonder till when will she keep receiving roles because of her resemblance to Angelina Jolie.

Shefali Shah is an integral part of all her husband's, Vipul Shah's films. She plays the role of a home minister but is always dressed like a rich socialite, even flashing big solitaires in all her scenes.

The film was released in 2200 screens and got a poor opening. With bad reviews and poor word of mouth it just has 7 days to recover it's budget which looks like a very difficult task.

In a line, this sequel is a big disappointment and should be seen only if you are a big fan of Vidyut Jamwal.

Avoidable.