Fitoor ~ Red Alert

Release date- 12'th February 2016

One Word which describes the film- Gloomy

Best Dialogue- 'Khud se azadi to sirf maut hi de sakti hai, ya fir ishq.' 

Genre - Romance/ Drama

Music- Amit Trivedi

Producer - Abhishek Kapoor, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story -Abhishek Kapoor , Supratik Sen
(Based on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)

Direction -Abhishek Kapoor

Cast -Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Tabu

Budget- 50-55 Crores approximately

The film is about a poor boy Noor who falls in love at first sight with the rich Firdaus. Years pass and the boy travels from Srinagar to Delhi, becomes a famous painter then travels to London and still remains obsessed with her.

The film revolves around Noor well portrayed by Aditya Roy Kapoor. He lost weight to look younger. His body language and expressions are perfect in most of the scenes.

Katrina Kaif had to play the 'femme fatale' in the film but in most of the scenes she looks confused and tensed. The child artist who plays the character of young Firdaus looked more confident and arrogant and when she tells young Noor, 'Neeche dekho' there was an authority in her voice. When Katrina tells Aditya, 'Ghoorna band karo, ab tum bacche nahi rahe' it sounded more like a request than an order. The posters show intense chemistry between the lead pair but in the film there are no such vibes which may set the screen on fire.

Tabu looks old and over dressed in most of the scenes and doesn't do justice to the character. She was supposed to be the master planner but in the film she comes out as a sulking middle aged lady who has a constant grudge with everyone around her.

The director must have envisioned a fiery, passionate love story and so there is a huge castle with hues of red, a red Mercedes and even a heroine who has red hair. The paintings made by the hero have bright red maple leaves and red backgrounds. Sadly his vision couldn't transform into reality and instead of seeing any passion we just have to do with heavy duty dialogues narrated by the hero now and then.

'Agar meri kismat mein sirf khaak likha hai, mujhe qubool hai. Agar yeh hi meri aakhri aah hai,  mujhe qubool hai. Qubool hai, qubool hai, qubool hai.'

Ajay Devgan has a 5 min role in the film and I think all his fans would like to know whether he owed something to Abhishek Kapoor that he agreed to do this insignificant role where he looked old and ugly.

The film has successfully captured the beauty of Kashmir but most of the scenes are shot in such dim light that in half of the film we keep waiting for it to come from darkness to light. 

The film got a poor opening of just 3.6 Crores and with bad reviews and word of mouth the film has turned into a losing proposition both for the producers and actors.

In a line despite creating a beautiful backdrop, the director has miserably failed in his attempt to tell a passionate love story.

Time-pass. Can be seen for the beautiful cinematography and melodious songs.

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.

Ek Tha Tiger - Love Beyond Borders

One line which describes the film – Jab pyar kiya to darna kya !

Best Dialogue –  Jis mohabbat main deewangi nahi, wo mohabbat hi nahi.

Genre- Romance / Action

Director-  Kabir Khan

Story – Aditya Chopra

Producer –  Aditya Chopra 

Music Director -  Sohail Sen , Sajid-Wajid  (Mashallah )

Cast – Salman Khan , Katrina Kaif , Ranvir Shorey , Girish Karnad

Budget –  75 crores

Rating - 1.5 star for first half, 3.5 star for second half 

We all were super excited for this Salman Khan starrer where he plays the role of a RAW agent who travels to exotic locations like Havana ,Ireland, Istanbul .The film started with shaky camera ,flying cigarette butts and currency notes which according to me was not the perfect entry for Salman.

The film dragged for another half an hour and many scenes reminded us of the fiasco called Agent Vinod .I was thinking that Wanted  had better dialogues, Dabangg had better music, Ready had better comic moments and Bodyguard  had a better looking and fitter Salman so what was there in this film which  will make it the top grossing film of the year.  

Post interval I got the answer to my question. The USP of the film is not it's action scenes or exotic locations. It's the chemistry between Salman and Katrina. Tiger feels such great love for Zoya which we keep reading in books. He is ready to lose his everything ,even bet his own life for his lady love. Even the cynics will feel something when Salman says , "Jab pyar ho raha tha tab kisine bataya nahi ki dushman hai, aur ab pyar ho gaya hai to koyi bata nahi raha ki dushman kyon hai  ?"

Salman has done everything which his fans expect ,danced ,done some bone breaking action scenes and taken off his shirt too ! There is no one liner in the film like  mujhpar ek ehsaaan karna /  ek baar  main commitment kar deta hoon, which stay in everyone's memory even after the film is long forgotten . 

Katrina has done a  good job.Most of the times she just had to look pretty but she has done some action sequences too.

Girish Karnad and Ranbeer Shorey did justice to their small roles. 

One thing which I missed while watching the film was the audience's applause and whistles which is a common feature in every Salman film . There was just one scene near the climax where everyone clapped which you will know when you watch it. 

In a line it's better to watch the film as soon as possible and get over the tiger obsession .

Good timepass and post interval paisa-vasool. Can be seen in theater with family.