Raees~ Once upon a time in Gujarat

Release date-  25th January 2017 

One Word which describes the film- Mediocre

Best Dialogues- 

SRK- 'Mai Dharm ki Rajneeti nahi karta' 

Nawazuddin- 'Bacche ka baap Bana hai, Gujarat ka nahi.' 

Mhd Zeeshan- 'Neeyat bandh ke khada hai, ab sajda kar ke hi manega.'

Genre- Crime/ Thriller

Music- Ram Sampath

Producer- Gauri Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidwani

Story- Rahul Dholakia, Haritha Mehta, Ashish Vashi, Neeraj Shukla

Direction-Rahul Dholakia

Cast- Shahrukh Khan, Mahira Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mhd Zeeshan, Atul Kulkarni

Budget- 75 Crores approximately excluding Shahrukh Khan's remuneration

Once upon a time in Gujarat, there lived a man called Abdul Latif who began his career as a gambler-turned-bootlegger, and later made a thriving career in organised crime.

In 1986 when he was in prison, Latif contested from five municipal seats and won all of them. After few years he was booked as a terrorist under the TADA Act and on November 29, 1997, he died in an encounter.

Rahul Dholakia along with three others superficially took these pointers from Abdul Latif's story, copied the one liner style from Once upon a time in Mumbai, created a hate chemistry between Shahrukh and Nawazuddin because obviously there was not enough love between Shahrukh and Mahira and as a last thought added a Sunny Leone item number too.

So we got a film which just after the extended weekend was over, started losing viewers.

Shahrukh Khan plays the role of a bootlegger turned lover, turned husband, turned murderer, turned father, turned social worker, turned politician, turned terrorist by mistake, turned revenge seeker and in between also trying to be like Amitabh Bachchan by fighting for the Mill Mazdoors, that you wonder why other talented actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub, Atul Kulkarni, Narendra Jha, Jaideep Alahawat etc were even in the film.

Even after Shahrukh Khan has earned a fortune, he single handedly goes and beats the leader of the opposition because he had organised a rally which was bad for his 'dhanda'. (Sigh!)

Mahira Khan has been giving interviews about how she's missing being a part of the film's promotions.

Till interval she just had 2-3 scenes and we didn't even know what her character was called.

But then, Raees was not about the hero's love for her, it was only about his obsession for his 'hashtag' 'dhanda'

"Jo dhande ke liye sahi woh sahi jo dhande ke liye galat woh galat, isse zyada kabhi socha nahi."

In the promos, we were shown how Nawazuddin Siddiqui tries to make it difficult for Raees to conduct his 'dhanda' smoothly but in the film we see him just saying powerful dialogues and Raees managing to escape the police just by smuggling his liquor bottles in Bullock carts instead of trucks or by using ferries. If only smuggling was that easy everyone would have become a bootlegger!!

In the second half there is also this conversation between them

Nawaz- "Aaj kal din ache chal rahe hai tere"

SRK- "Din aur raat logon ke hote honge, sheron ka zamana hota hai."

We wonder if suddenly Nawazuddin has joined SRK's fanclub.

The story had so many loopholes that if Shahrukh Khan wasn't in it, it wouldn't even have managed to recover it's production cost.

The songs are very average and they just keep popping up in the film without any context.

Shahrukh Khan, who in the starting of his career didn't mind playing totally negative characters like in 'Darr' or 'Anjaam' has tried to make the gangster look so good that neither we could love him enough nor we could hate him, so we have no other option but to forget him.

For all those Shahrukh fans who keep defending his films without having a logical answer, I would like to ask them that if after 2 years you are asked to choose between Chak De India and Raees, which one will you watch?

In a line, Raees is another attempt by SRK to give a masala blockbuster which will be added to the list of his other non-brainer films like Chennai Express, Happy New Year, Dilwale etc.

Time-pass.

Dear Zindagi ~ "Sleepless in Goa"

Release date- 25th November 2016

One Word which describes the film- Exaggerated

Best Dialogue- "Life mai jab koyi pattern ya adat bante hue dikhayi de to uske baare mai acche se sochna chahiye. Genius is about knowing when to stop."

Genre- Drama

Music- Amit Trivedi

Producer- Gauri Khan, Gauri Shinde, Karan Johar

Story & Direction- Gauri Shinde

Cast- Alia Bhatt, Shahrukh Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Ali Zafar, Angad Bedi

Budget- 45 Crores including P&A

After watching Dear Zindagi, I read some reviews of famous critics which made me wonder that did they see the same film as us. Whereas most of the people with us were getting restless about how the film went on and on and how some even walked out after interval, the critics couldn't stop talking about how handsome and down to earth SRK looked as Jahangir Khan, or how the film has easily recovered it's production cost cause of it's low budget and selling of distribution rights to a single company.

An average movie goer has no interest in knowing about the economics of a film. He/she is only interested in the entertainment, informational or motivational value of the film.

Gauri Shinde made her directional debut with the highly acclaimed English Vinglish(2012). In her next film Dear Zindagi she tells about Kiara who is having problems in her life and so she decides to visit a 'dimaag ka doctor'.
If this visit to a shrink was just an episode in the film as was in '2 States' where Arjun Kapoor because of the complexities of his relationships couldn't sleep, the film could have been interesting. Sadly Dear Zindagi is 75% about the long conversations between Shahrukh Khan and Alia Bhatt and how he makes her come to terms with her life, which almost everyone in the audience found too monotonous and boring.

There are three heroes in the films but instead of playing any significant roles they just come in 2-3 scenes and then disappear.

Then we have SRK playing the role of a psychiatrist who tells his patient that boyfriends are like chairs which is such a silly thought but is absolutely loved by the patient. Anyone who watches Koffee with Karan will agree that SRK is a smooth talker and he says everything with such sincerity that not only we believe it, we love listening to him too. But that's in a talk show. In a film we expect him to play a larger than life character, a lover, a father, a hockey coach or even his own fan.

Alia Bhatt is an excellent actress and she has perfectly portrayed the role of a confused girl. She is a natural performer but if she wants to be a part of the big league she has to do more main stream roles like Anushka Sharma or Deepika Padukone.

The film's basic problem is the lack of a proper story. It's more of a set of incidents where we sometimes see Kiara partying with her friends in a disco, or shouting at her parents, or flirting with any guy who hits on her. These scenes make her character look like a shallow girl than depressed.

There are some moments like when a talk between the protagonist and her doctor inspire us on how we must leave some memories for our kids or how we shouldn't let our past effect out future but they are so few that after an hour we couldn't wait for the film to finish.

The film is shot mostly in Goa and though there is lot of scenic beauty we wish that the director has worked a little more on the story too.
The film was released in 1200 screens and because of Shahrukh Khan managed to earn 8.75 Crores on it first day which is quite good. 

In a line, with talented actors like Shahrukh Khan and Alia Bhatt and no budget restraints, the director could have made a much better film which was high on entertainment quotient too.
Time-pass.

Chennai Express - Rohit Shetty's tribute to Tamil films .

Release date – 9'th August 2013

One Word which describes the film –  Melodrama 

Frequently used Dialogue  –
'Don't underestimate the power of a common man '

Genre – Action /Comedy

  

Screenplay - Yunus Sajawal

Music – Vishal–Shekhar 

Producer - Gauri Khan , Ronnie Screwvala , Siddharth Roy Kapur

Direction - Rohit Shetty 

Cast – Deepika Padukone , Shahrukh Khan

  

Budget - 70-80 crores

Chennai Express started in a narrative style with SRK saying that 'Myself Rahul, 40 saal ka ho gaya hoon aur normally is age tak har kisi ki life main ek aadha twist to aa hi jata hai .' We prepared ourselves for a happening journey with lots of twists and entertainment. As soon as Deepika made her entry in the film a big twist came and suddenly everyone started talking in Tamil. There were no subtitles. In a Rohit Shetty's film we are used to flying cars but when 30% of the dialogues are being said in Tamil we wonder for which audience the film is being made. 


Deepika Padukone , after exposing to the limits in Coctail and Ye jawani hai diwani appears as a well dressed South Indian girl. She looked beautiful when she is quiet and expressing with her eyes but the moment she starts talking in the weird accent she has adopted for the film she starts getting on our nerves. She herself must be fed up of the simple look as in the item number 'lungi dance' at the end she is back  in her glamorous look in  see through sarees and low cut blouses.

Shahrukh Khan was the king of romance once. When he said to Kajol 'Kuch kuch hota hai anjali ,tum nahi samjhogi' we all felt his love for the girl who once was his friend . 
In Chennai Express , he himself was using all his famous lines in a comic way which was not at all humorous. Though we did laugh in some scenes but then we expect much more from Shahrukh Khan. 

The film shows some really beautiful and scenic locations  of the South which are at par with the Switzerland we see in Yash Chopra films.

Music of the film is very ordinary . Just one song 'Meherbaani nahi tumhara pyar maanga hai' is melodious .

In a line the film would have been more entertaining ,if Rohit Shetty had made it for the common man who doesn't understand Tamil .

Shahrukh Khan fans will watch it. Time pass .

Rank - 19 out of the 40 films I have seen in 2013