Badla~ The Invisible Guest

Director- Sujoy Ghosh

Cast- Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Manav Kaul, Amrita Singh

Best Dialogues-
1. Sabka sach alag alag hota hai

2. Woh moorkh hota hai joh sirf sach ko hi jaanta hai aur sach aur jhooth ke fark ko nahi jaanta hai

Badla is the official remake of Spanish hit film, The Invisible Guest. It’s a scene by scene remake so if you have seen the original film on Netflix, this one can be skipped.

The film is about Naina Sethi, who has recently been facilitated with the Businesswoman of the year award and Badal Gupta, an advocate who hasn't lost a single case in his 40-year legal career.

Naina Sethi is accused of murder and her lawyer thinks that only Badal Gupta can save her. Badal agrees to take the case on the condition that Naina should tell him the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

As the film progresses, through the table discussions of the two protagonists we come to know about the other characters and the plot slowly unravels.
Amitabh Bachchan as Badal Gupta is superb. It's his screen presence and dialogue delivery which keeps us hooked to the film.

Taapsee Pannu has the same bored expression throughout  the film. 

Amrita Singh shines in a small role.

The film is made on a  small budget, there are no grand sets or songs, and most of it is shot in a room.
The story has several plot twists, though the climax could have been better.
The film has managed to earn 30 Crores in 5 days and has turned out to be a profitable venture for the producers.

In a line, if you are a Bachchan fan, the film can be seen for his energy otherwise watch the original on Netflix.

One time watch. Can be seen when is aired on TV.

Sarkar 3~ Triple dose of disappointment

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Yami Gautam, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Best Dialogue: "Har acchai ki koi nirdharit keemat hoti hai, who chahe paisa ho, gyan ho, Ya phir dard.. aur dard ki keemat chukani padta hai."

In 2005, Ram Gopal Varma gave us Sarkar where we got an inside look of the family of a feared man, Subhash Nagre who solved everyone’s problems while sipping tea. The film ended with his younger son, Shankar taking on his seat.

In 2008, Ramu made Sarkar Raaj where Sarkar's enemies kill Shankar and Sarkar is forced to return to action and take revenge from them. In the end he’s seen sipping tea with Shankar’s wife Anita hinting that maybe she can become his heir.

When Sarkar 3 was announced we were quite disappointed to know that Aishwarya won't be a part of it. Maybe the film’s budget didn't permit it or maybe the Bachchan bahu was busy shooting for her first 100 Crore film, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

Sarkar 3 had the tagline that Sarkar is back and he’s angrier than ever. But throughout the film not even once we saw his anger or got to hear some dialogue which could make us whistle or clap for him.

Apart from Amitabh Bachchan all other characters are so ordinary that they hardly stand out.

Amid Sadh plays the role of the grandson who may become Sarkar's heir but he shows no energy and says lines like “Sab doodh ke jale hai and chaach ko phoonk ke peete hai” or “ye khel unhone shuru kia hai, khatam mai karunga”. Couldn't the dialogue writer have been a bit more original?

Manoj Bajpai’s entry scene was good but after sometime even his character lost the edge.

Yami Gautam’s character has her own vendetta against Sarkar, for he had her father killed. But throughout the film she’s only shown meeting Amit Sadh for coffee dates and just talking and talking. In most of the scenes she looks like a drug addict.

Jackie Shroff’s character is written on the lines of Vijay Mallya. When he talks to his aides on phone there is always his scantily clad girlfriend in the background who is sometimes feeding the dolphins or just showing off her sun tanned body. Jackie just has to stare at her and say lame dialogues like, “Jis jis ko maine ring di darling, wo sab mar gayi”.

Without any powerful antagonist, Sarkar has nothing left to do and we have to watch a poor version of the same story we saw 12 years back.

To add to our woes there is loud background music blaring in the background along with the Govinda Govinda & Saam daam dand bhed chants.

The film was released in approximately 1500 screens and because of bad reviews and poor word of mouth earned around 7 crores over the weekend. The film will finish around 12 Crores which is even less than what Sarkar made in 2005.

In a line, Sarkar 3 has proved to be the final nail in the coffin of Ram Gopal Verma's creativity and after this big stars like Mr Bachchan will surely stay away from working in his films.
Highly avoidable.

Pink~ A tale about women of questionable character.

Release date- 16th September 2016

One Word which describes the film- Gritty 

Best Dialogue- 'Nahi apne aap mai ek sentence hai. Ise kisi explaination ki jarurat nahi hai. When a woman says No, you stop.'

Genre- Thriller/ Courtroom Drama

Music- Shantanu Moitra

Producer- Rashmi Sharma, Shoojit Sircar

• 
  

Story- Ritesh Shah

Direction- Annirudha Roy Chaudhary 

Cast- Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Angad Bedi, Piyush Mishra

Budget- 25 Crores approximately

PINK is a social thriller that reflects on the dubious morals of today's times.

Based on their preconceptions of women, people often exhibit subtle forms of subconscious bias that cause them to treat women differently from men. Men and women are often held to different standards and the same behavior is viewed differently in women than in men. So if a man is assertive, the woman behaving in the same manner is aggressive. Men lose their cool whereas women get emotional because they are suffering from PMS.

If a woman drinks she is a woman of questionable character, but for a man it's just a 'health hazard'.

The film starts on a slow note as we are introduced to the main characters of the story. We get to see how an incident changes the lifestyle of people associated with it. 

When an older man tells a young woman, "I can either be truthful or liberal" the film starts taking shape. 

Amitabh Bachchan is the life and soul of the film. As an old retired lawyer he silently observes people but as soon as he dons his lawyer's robe there is a distinctive change in his demeanour which makes the whole film engrossing.

When Mr Bachchan says, "Hamare yahan ghadi ki sui ladki ka character decide karti hai", all the ladies in the theater couldn't agree more with him.

There are so many things in the film which everyone knows about but we never talk about them because of the social taboos associated with such discussions. There is a scene where the girl's father walks out of the court to save her from embarrassment.

Tapsi Pannu has given stiff competition to Mr Bachchan in the acting department. How the society and the system breaks a strong willed girl can be easily seen in the film. From a girl who isn't afraid of shouting on the phone, "I'm bored you coward, so stop talking and come and show what you can do" we see her transforming into a girl who's asking for mercy.

Other actors of the film have also done a good job but they don't deserve a special mention.

I was in a state of constant fear and tension as to what is going to happen next so despite the UA certificate, I wouldn't recommend to watch it with kids. Teenagers can watch it with their friends. 

In a line, Pink tries to explain in 2 hours how a NO means no and should be respected as a choice, not as a rejection or challenge to your ego.

Good one time watch.

Te3n~ More of a one-man show.

Release date- 10th June 2016

One Word which describes the film- Perplexing

Best Dialogue- "8 saal pehle jo hua wo phir se ho raha hai, wo tumhe ek aur mauka de raha hai, ab God ki bari hai, baki sab ko to tum pehle se hi nirash kar chuke ho."

Genre- Thriller

Music-Clinton Cerejo

Producer- Sujoy Ghosh, Gulab Singh Tanwar, 
Hyunwoo, Thomas Kim, Suresh Nair, Sameer Rajendran, Gauri Sathe

Story & Direction- Ribhu Dasgupta

Cast-Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty

Budget- 28 Crores Including P & A approximately

Te3n has three characters, an old man who keeps visiting the police station to find clues related to the unsolved kidnapping case of his grand daughter, a cop, and a priest who was once a cop.

The film starts on a slow pace and the the director wastes time in showing Amitabh riding his old scooter and bargaining for fish in the vegetable market. There is the talented Nawazuddin who because of one failed mission resigns as a cop and becomes a priest but regains his sense of humor when he is joining a couple in holy matrimony.
'Father, meri shadi ho rahi hai koi mara nahi hai.'
Nawaz- 'pata hai mujhe, koi jyada farak nahi hai dono mai.' 

When all doors seem to have closed, the old grandfather finds a clue. 
The cops come into action when another kidnapping happens which is planned in almost a similar fashion.

Amitabh Bachchan as John, is the life and soul of the film. He looks like a tired old man who doesn't want to accept defeat . He manages to keep the audiences engrossed in the story for some time but as there is no help from the other characters, soon the story starts to drag.

The talented Vidya Balan is just wasted in this role where she has neither powerful dialogues nor any scope of showing her acting skills. She is in such a de-glam look that we wonder why didn't the makers cast some side actress  which could have at least reduced the budget of the film. There is a hint of a relation between her and Nawaz but it isn't explored anywhere in the film.  

Before interval Nawazuddin's character is confused and he just sleep walks in the film, afterwards he has some good scenes but till then we have already lost interest in the story.

The director has unnecessarily tried to confuse the audience by showing two different stories which were happening in different timeframes, simultaneously. Much before the climax most of us were able to guess what was happening. I wonder, why do makers try to make such pseudo intellectual films when in reality simple films like 'PIKU' make more money at the box office.

Music is average. 'Kyun Re' sung by Amitabh Bachchan, which depicts the pain of a man who has lost his granddaughter, touches our soul. 

The film will collect around 10-12 crores over the weekend which is quite less considering the powerful star cast.

In a line, ideally the story should have been about three powerful characters who work together to solve the case, in reality the film turns out to be a badly conceived thriller made to encash on Mr Bachchan's popularity.

Timepass. If you are a big Amitabh Bachchan fan, only then you should think of watching it in theater.  

Wazir ~ Not just a pawn

Release date- 8th January 2016

One Word which describes the film - Engrossing

Best Dialogue - Zindagi aur shatranj mein yahi toh farak hai. Zindagi mein doosra mauka milta nahi, yahan shatranj mein mil jata hai.

Genre - Thriller

Music - Shantanu Moitra, Ankit Tiwari

Producer - Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Story - Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi

Direction -Bejoy Nambiar

Cast - Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Manav Kaul

• Budget - 35-40 crores

खेल खेल में, खेल खेल के,खेल खेल ये आ जायेगा 

हार जीत से, हार जीत के, जीत हार सिखायेगा

खेल खेल में..!

Wazir is the story of three characters and how fate brings them together in the game of life where winner takes it all and the loser has to fall.

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer Daanish Ali lives a blissful life with his wife Ruhana and daughter Noorie. In a dramatic turn of events he crosses paths with a wheelchair-bound chess master named Pandit Omkar Nath Dhar and they develop a strong friendship 'Atarangi yaari'.

The jovial Pandit who believes that 'Vodka peene ke baad pandit mahapandit ban jata hai' comes as a ray of hope in the life of Daanish Ali. The moments where Panditjee tries to make Daanish laugh are so real that you can actually feel the bond the two share.

Panditjee ~ 'Upar wala poochega mujhse itni lambi zindagi di kya ukhad liya tumne, main kahunga maine ek yaar ko hasna sikha diya.' 

Amitabh Bachchan must be the only Bollywood actor who keeps experimenting with his looks and voice. His dialogue delivery has made the characters played by him immortal whether it is Vijay Deenanath Chauhan of Agnipath(1990) or Vijay Verma of Deewar(1975).

When you work with the best some of their aura is transferred to you too. Proving this statement right even Farhan Akhtar effortlessly manages to transform into Daanish Ali. He looks  lean and at the same time muscular. His pain and frustration is so real that you sympathize with him.

Aditi Roy Hydari's look and dressing is so perfect that she looks like an ethereal beauty.

"Tu Mere Paas"  composed and sung by Ankit Tewari is so melodious that you can hear it continuously on loop.

Several reviews suggested that the suspense was too lame and the film loses speed after interval. The film is just 102 minutes long and even without the not so special appearance by John Abraham there is too much going on which will keep you rooted to your seats.

In a line don't expect the film to be an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece and you won't be disappointed.

Must watch for Mr. Bachchan's fans. Good one time watch.

Piku - Motion se Emotion tak

Release date - 8'th May 2015

One Word which describes the film - LOL

Best Dialogue - 
Amitabh Bachchan: Insaan ka emotion uska motion ke saath juda hua hai.

Irrfan Khan: Kamaal hai, ap har baat ko pet ke sath kaise jod dete hain

Genre - Comedy/ Drama 

Music -Anupam Roy

Producer - N.P. Singh, Ronnie Lahiri, Sneha Rajan

Story -  Juhi Chaturvedi
Direction -Shoojit Sircar

Cast - Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan,
Jishu Sengupta, Raghuvir Yadav, Moushumi Chatterjee,

Budget- 30 crores approximately

Deepika Padukone plays the titular role of a single woman who manages her career along with her aging father. In recent films we have seen Deepika in ultra glamorous roles wearing bikinis or minis and doing steamy scenes. Here in simple kurtas or tees paired with palazzo pants she looks pretty and her love and concern for her hypochondriac father touches our hearts. She is the regular next door girl who is not perfect, gets irritated now and then and even shouts at her father.

Whenever Amitabh Bachchan does any role he is so much engrossed in it that we forget that he is Mr. Bachchan, the legend and just think of him as the character he is playing. Here he is Bhaskar Banerjee , a 70 year attention seeking man who thinks that his daughter should take care of him in the same way as he took care of her when she was a kid. He thinks that only females with low IQ get married. 

Irrfan Khan is the owner of a taxi company who has to accompany the two lead actors on a road trip.

The film has no story and is like a series of incidents taken from anyone's life but the dialogues and the scenes are so real and funny that we become part of the family and eagerly wait for what is going to happen next. There are no pseudo intellectual characters or inspirational message still the way in which the lead actors interact with each other through their eyes and expressions is commendable. 

When the three actors are together their timing is perfect and you can not stop laughing.

In a line the film has so many laugh out loud moments that they will make you laugh your heart out and leave you with a smile on your face.

Must watch.

Sholay - The Magnum Opus

Release date - 15'th August 1975

One Word which describes the film - Epic

Famous Dialogues–

Gabbar Singh -'Jo dar gaya samjho mar gaya.'
'Holi kab hai, kab hai Holi.'
'Are O Sambha, kitne admi the?'
Thakur-
'Ye hath nahi phansi ka fanda hai.'
Jai-
'Tumhara naam kya hai,basanti ?'
Veeru-
'Basanti, in kutton ke samne mat nachna.'
'Kutte,main tera khoon pee jaoonga.'
Basanti-
'Bhag dhanno bhag, aj teri basanti ki izzat ka sawal hai.'
'Dekho,mujhe befazool ki baat karne ki adat to hai nahi.'
Jailor-
'Hum angrezon ke zamane ke jailor hai, ha ha.'
'Adhe idhar jao,adhe udhar jao.Baki hamare sath aao.'
Kaliya-
'Sardar , maine apka namak khaya hai, Sardar.'
Immam-'Itna sannata kyon hai bhai ?'

Genre – Action

Screenplay- Salim-Javed

Music – R. D. Burman

Producer- G.P. Sippy

Direction - Ramesh Sippy

Cast - , Sanjeev Kumar ,Dharmendra , Amitabh Bachchan , Hema Malini , Jaya Bhaduri , Amjad Khan

Budget - 3-4 crores 

Sholay is the highest grosser of all times. If the figures for inflation are adjusted then the film has earned almost 700+ crores till now.
Sholay was released with just 40 prints in Mumbai and on it's release it received negative critical reviews and was declared a flop. It was the word of mouth publicity which brought the audiences to the theatres  and the rest is history. It broke records for continuous showings in many theatres across India and ran for more than five years at Mumbai's Minerva theatre .

Once it became a commercial success all the things which were against it like the western touch , the violence turned to it's favor and everyone started considering it as the best story ever told.

So what does it takes to create a magnum opus ?

Sholay’s story was drastically different from what audiences in India expected from a film at that time. It had everything from dacoits on horseback to gun fights (where in some scenes even real bullets were used), to item numbers to a beautiful  lady riding a tonga . There were many characters each having their own story and the way those stories were inter connected with each other kept the audience involved till the end . 

Though Amzad Khan had just 9 scenes in the film, Gabbar Singh character became so famous & hit amongst people that Britannia made a commercial advertisement with Amjad Khan eating Biscuits. This was the first time in Indian cinema that a villain was used by a company to market its products. The advertisement was an instant hit in children and the sales doubled in no time.
The film had a lavish production for its time  and went over budget as Sippy re-filmed scenes many times to get his desired effect. "

One can think that it takes a good story , good characters, good dialogues and songs to make a hit.
But if it was that easy, why couldn't Ramesh Sippy repeat the same success story again ?
Why even after acting in many film  Amjad Khan is best remembered as Gabbar Singh ?
Why when we think of best friends the first name which comes in our mind is of Jai and Veeru? 

It's a lesser known fact that Dharmendra recommended Amitabh Bachchan for the role of Jai (producer's choice was Shatrughan Sinha) and Amitabh Bachchan recommended Amjad Khan for the role of Gabbar Singh(producer's choice was Danny ).

At the time of it's release Sholay won just one Filmfare award for best editing but over the years it has won many best film awards. Sanjeev Kumar was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor award for Sholay .Though he won the Best Actor award that year but it was for his role of J.K.in Aandhi.  

Attempts to recreate the magic of Sholay 

In 1991,  Ramgarh Ke Sholay , directed by Ajit Diwani was released. Amjad Khan who played the iconic villain Gabbar Singh in the original film returns to the role of Gabbar in this film. The film featured Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh , Vijay Saxena ( who resembles Amitabh Bachchan ) as Jai and Kishore Bhanushali ( who resembles Dev Anand) as Veeru. The movie did good business in the small theaters.

In 2004, Sholay was digitally remastered and shown again to packed theatres in India, including Mumbai's Minerva, where it had run successfully 29 years earlier.

In 2007  Ram Gopal Varma made ' Aag ' which was the official remake of  Sholay featuring  Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar Singh . Aag was heavily criticized by critics and is  considered as the worst films of all time.

In 2010 , G. P. Sippy's grandson, Sasha Sippy approached Ketan Mehta's company Maya digital to convert the film into 3 D. It took 25 crore and a team of 350 people to convert the film into digital 3D format for which each and every scene had to be individually restored, colour-corrected and re-composited in 3D to match the depth. The film was released on 3'rd January 2014.

In a line, Sholay is the perfect example of a complete entertaining Bollywood film having the perfect mix of drama, action, humor and songs . 

Can be seen at any time . 

Review of Satyagraha

Release Date- 30'th August

One Word which describes the film – Inspirational  

Best Dialogue  – 'Paisa hi apka dharm hai aur bazar hi apki morality. '

Genre – Political/Thriller 

  

Story - Anjum Rajabali , Prakash Jha , Rutvik Oza

Music – Shantanu Moitra

Producer - Prakash Jha , Ronnie Screwvala , Siddharth Roy Kapur

Direction - Prakash Jha

Cast – Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Amrita Rao ,Vipin Sharma

  

Budget - 50 crore + (15 crore prints and publicity)

Prakash Jha is famous for his political and socio-political films such as Gangaajal (2003), Apaharan (2005), Raajneeti (2010)  Aarakshan (2011) and  Chakravyuh (2012). 

This film is based on the Anna Hazare movement where Shri Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti corruption law , the Jan Lokpal Bill and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support .

The story revolves around an idealistic retired teacher , an ambitious capitalist , a youth leader , a corrupt politician and a journalist.
Though the idea of presenting the most talked about issue in a dramatic form was great but somewhere the film stopped being a story and was presented just as a series of events. 

Amitabh Bachchan as the main protagonist is the backbone of the film. When he tells the corrupt politician ,"Janta sarkaar ki malik hai. Malik nirdesh deta hai. Maang nahin karta" , we actually start believing in the powers of the common man. In the fasting scenes he looked frail and delicate as if really had nothing to eat since days.

Ajay Devgn , as the master mind behind awakening the public has done a good job. Though in some scenes especially the ones with Kareena he looked haggard and out of shape .

Kareena Kapoor as the fiery journalist who believes in doing the right thing and following her heart has given a good performance.

Time and again Manoj Bajpai has proved that he's an actor par excellence. In his grey shades we love to hate him.

Arjun Rampal had the weakest role which could have done by any junior artist . 

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are shown playing an important role in sharing information and  spreading the movement among the masses. 


In a line despite the flaws , the film is a one time watch for soul touching performances by Mr. Bachchan and Ajay Devgn.   

Time-pass.
Rank- 21  (out of the 43 films I have seen in 2013)