Singh Is Bliing ~ Comedy of Errors

Release date - 2'nd Oct 2015

One Word which describes the film - Stupidity Reloaded

Best Dialogue- 'Singh jahan pair rakhta hai ... woh ilaaka uska ho jaata hai.'

Genre - Action/ Comedy 

Music -Meet Bros Anjjan, Manj Musik, Sajid-Wajid

Producer - Akshay Kumar, Ashvini Yardi, Jayantilal Gada

Story-  Shiraz Ahmed

Direction -Prabhu Deva

Cast -Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta, Kay Kay Menon, Rati Agnihotri

Budget- 50 Crores approximately

In 2008, producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah and director Anees Bazmee gave us a character Happy Singh who was a good at heart simpleton and used to tell whoever he met,' Main to sach bolta hoon, acchi apne aap lag jati hai.'

After 7 years the producers and director have changed and now we have Raftaar Singh who is an equally happy go lucky guy and loves to spend time with his friends and according to his father has this bad habit of leaving all jobs unfinished.

The film is Akshay Kumar's journey from Punjab to Goa, then again to Punjab and again to Goa, then to Romania and finally back to pavilion Punjab.

Though the film is called Singh is Bliing, it's not Singh who shines but his love interest Amy Jackson who not only gets equal screen space but also better action scenes. In fact it's really surprising to see a slender actress like Amy do action stunts with such perfection that you will be reminded of Hollywood characters like The Bride from  Kill Bill or Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. But then as it's Bollywood the director had to spoil her charm by making her dance in silly songs like Cinema Dekhe Mamma and Dil Kare Chu Che!

Lara Dutta who made her debut in Andaaz opposite Akshay Kumar in 2003 is now reduced to playing the role of a translator which any junior artist could have played.

Kay Kay Menon's entry is good and his dialogue,'I am too good' remind us of the great roles he has done in the past but here he gets no opportunity of showing his talent.

Rati Agnihotri plays the role of Akshay's mother and they are shown sharing a great bond which we can feel when during a telephonic conversation she asks 

'Bada khush lag raha hai tu, ladki kaun hai? ' to which Akshay replies, 'Kamaal hai maa, tujhse kuch nahi chupa sakta.' 

The director has combined all these characters along with lots of junior artists in a 2 hours 25 minutes film which has absolutely no story. To make up for the lack of screenplay there are many songs and dances and some comedy scenes which will make you laugh but by the end make you wish that all this glamour and bling could have done better with a good story. There is also a scene where the hero tries to pass off a bull dog as a lion!

But the tragedy is that this Akshay Kumar starrer got a better opening and business than his last two meaningful films Baby and Gabbar is Back.

The film collected around 21 crores on Friday because of Gandhi Jayanti and almost 65 crores in 5 days.

In a line if you liked Happy Singh and his mind boggling tactics of making you laugh then maybe you can come to like Raftaar Singh too.

Time-pass. Can be seen for Amy Jackson.

Bombay Velvet - Big shots, Guns and all that Jazz !

Release date -15'th May 2015

One Word which describes the film - Kashyap's Waterloo

Best Dialogue - Abhi to apun small se large hua hai, abhi patiala hona baki hai.'

Genre - Crime/ Drama

Music - Amit Trivedi

Producer - Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl, Fox Star Studios

Story - Based on Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash

Direction -Anurag Kashyap

Cast -Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, Kay Kay Menon, Satyadeep Misra,  Vivaan Shah

Budget- 90 crores approximately (Including P & A)

‘Bombay Velvet’ is a period drama set at a time when Bombay became a metropolis.
The film starts with Raveena Tandon crooning a Jazz number which has lines like 

'Roothi hai mehbooba

Roothi roothi sharaab hai
Hey aam hindustani teri kismat kharaab hai.' 

We are mesmerized by the elaborate costume of the singer and the grandiose of Bombay Velvet's sets. As the story is set in the sixties, elaborate sets of Bombay's landmarks were specially mounted across various locations in Sri Lanka to recreate the ambiance of a bygone decade. Every minute detail is taken care of. When we see a bus it has the advertisement of products of those times. Every character has the perfect get up and hairstyle. So the question is why Kashyap's magnum opus became the brunt of the audiences jokes ?

When you watch Ranbeer Kapoor playing the role of Jhonny Balraj you are instantly reminded of Tony Montana (Scarface,1983). Balraj is shown watching Hollywood films and he dreams of becoming a big shot. He is temperamental and has no qualms about killing people who come in his way. He is a violent and possessive lover. To give vent to his anger he participates in street fights because of which in most parts of the film he has a scarred face. 

Karan Johar makes his acting debut as Kaizad Khambata. He is the ruthless business man whose ultimate objective is to earn money. His ideology is, 'Main jo bhi karta hoon khud ke liye karta hoon.' Small time crooks like Balraj and his friend Chimman are just pawns in his game. He wears tailored suits and walks around with such elegance that it will remind you of the undulating movements of a snake. He looks down on people.In a particular scene he tells the lead actors that they look like the hired help and a zebra crossing respectively. He maintains a cool composure and in a really hilarious situation he comes outside the room and laughs his heart out and goes inside with a straight face.

Anushka Sharma plays the role of Jazz singer, Rosie  who is the object of desire of almost half of the male cast. She is the star of the Bombay Velvet club and her elaborate costumes and hairstyles reflect it.

Earlier when there was a sudden speculation about her lips Anushka tweeted that she was using a temporary lip enhancing tool and make-up techniques for the sake of her look in her upcoming film.

Satyadeep Mishra as Balraj's friend has the most well defined role. His loyalty is towards his friend. He has expressive eyes and his body language is perfect.

Veteran actors like Kay Kay Menon, Siddhart Basu are totally wasted. Even Vivan Shah plays a totally insignificant role.

The main problem in the film is it's weak screenplay and lack of dialogues. In Indian films special emphasis is paid on the entry of the hero or heroine. Here they randomly appear in a scene. We are shown a man bent on a bank counter and it turns out he is Karan Johar. Shouldn't the man who makes larger than life candyfloss romances get a better introduction than this ?

There is no continuity in the scenes. There are so many songs that in many situations instead of dialogues background music and songs are used. In the full movie there was hardly any scene where the audience can whistle or clap in appreciation.

Bombay Velvet is the perfect example of  'Too many cooks spoil the broth.' A team of writers including Vasan Bala, Gyan Prakash, Anurag Kashyap and S.Thanikachalam wrote the screenplay. When the producers were not satisfied with the results, Prerna Saigal (The Lunchbox) and Academy Award winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker were called to do the editing. 
Till interval the film is fast and manages to hold interest. Afterwards it's just unnecessary blood shed and violence. The much hyped song' Mohabbat Buri Bimari' shown in promos was not in the film. Instead we get to see a different version starring Raveena Tandon which was a big disappointment.      

In a line, Anurag Kashyap despite his passion for gangster films and detailing could not give proper shape to his dream project and so it has turned into a nightmare for the producers and the audiences.

Only for die-hard fans of Kashyap's  kind of Noir films. Time pass.

Review of Baby

Release date - 23'rd January 2015

One Word which describes the film -Thrilling

Best Dialogue - 'Mil jaate hai thode officers hamen. Thode pagal, thode adiyal, jinke dimag mein sirf desh aur deshbhakti ghoomti rehti hai. Yeh desh ke liye marna nahi chahte, balki jeena chahte hai. Taki akhri saans tak desh ki raksha kar sake.'

Genre - Action/Thriller

Music -M. M. Kreem, Meet Bros Anjjan

Producer - Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Shital Bhatia
Cape of Good Films, Crouching Tiger

Story & Direction -Neeraj Pandey

Cast -Danny Denzongpa, Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubati,Anupam Kher, Taapsee Pannu, Madhurima Tuli, 

• Kay Kay Menon, Sushant Singh

Budget- 60 crores(approximately)

Post the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai a team of special officers is formed whose job is to find and eliminate terrorists who are planning attacks in various cities in India.
With his third film,Neeraj Pandey is on his way to become the most wanted director of Bollywood.
The film has a bunch of talented actors who weave an environment of patriotism, thrill, terror and suspense which makes you forget that you are watching a film.
You feel panic when our heroes are in danger, feel sympathy for the wife who always gets the same answer from her husband that he's in conference so can't talk, feel the helplessness felt by the team leader when he can't save his team members and feel anger when the leader of the jehadis says, 'Hum India ko jante hai. Woh kuch bhi nahi kar sakenge. Wo sirf baatein karte rehte hai.' 
Danny and Akshay Kumar are the lifeline of this film. Both are tailor made for the role. There are scenes where it's shown in a subtle way that under their thick exterior these heroes are also normal humans. They also feel tension, fear and pain but let it all stay under their feeling of patriotism.
Neeraj Pandey has always believed that the content of the film should be paid more importance than it's marketing and promotions. Because of this though his films never manage to break any opening day records they set a new standard in film making and make a permanent place in the minds of the viewers. Baby has managed to earn just 20 crores in 2 days but hopefully with positive word of mouth and good reviews the film will surely cover it's budget and make decent profits for the producers.

In a line as an Indian it's your duty to watch this patriotic film and applaud the film's director Neeraj Pandey's guts and vision.
Mindblowing .Must Watch.

Coming soon - Review of Raja Natwarlal

Release date -29'th August 2014

One Word which describes the film -

Best Dialogue - 'Risk aur oopportunity ke beech main hi to chance milta hai aur jo us chance ke sath romance karta hai wohi asli raja kehlata hai.'

Genre - Crime / Comedy

Music -Yuvan Shankar Raja

Producer - Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story-Parveez Shaikh

Direction -Kunal Deshmukh

Cast -Emraan Hashmi ,Humaima Malick ,Paresh Rawal ,Kay Kay Menon

Budget- 30-35 crores

Raja Natwarlal was originally called Shaatir. Pakistani actress and model Humaima Malick makes her debut in Bollywood with this film.

Director ,Kunal Deshmukh started his career as an assistant director in Zeher (2005), Kalyug and Woh Lamhe (2006), under director Mohit Suri and Vishesh Films.He made his directional debut Jannat in 2008 followed by Tum Mile (2009) and Jannat 2 (2012).

Review of ABCD Any body can Dance

Release date - 8'th Feb 2013

One Line which describes the film – “ You've gotta' dance like there's nobody watching.” 

Best  Dialogue –  " Dance apne aap me ek nasha hai.Jab ye nasha ho , aur koi nasha nahi ho sakta ”

Genre - Dance  / Drama 


Story - Tushar Hiranandani

Music – Sachin Jigar

Producer -  Ronnie Screwvala ,  Roy Kapur

Director /Choreographer - Remo D'Souza

Cast - Prabhu Deva , Ganesh Acharya , Kay Kay Menon , Terence Lewis , Salman Yusuff Khan , Dharmesh Yelande 

Budget – 25 crores 

Remo D’Souza claims that this ABCD is Bollywood's answer to Hollywood's 'Step up' series. After watching the film you will agree with him as the film has more than 15 different dance sequences which are not only entertaining but also energizing . 

The film shows the difference in opinion between two founder members of a dance academy where one thinks that dance should be done to impress people and make money and other thinks that dance is a way to express your inner feelings.

Prabhudeva as Vishnu Sir is the life and soul of the film . He is one of the best dancer of India but in the film he doesn't tries to impress us  with his dancing skills . He  is an inspiring teacher who thinks that D of the word dance stands for discipline . There is so much truth in his words when he tells a student that he can not perform a stunt with another student until he has faith in him .He constantly encourages his students and makes them start believing in themselves .   

The young boys and girls  who play Prabhu Deva’s students are winners of several dance reality shows  and though they won't be winning any awards for their acting skills they did a great work of bringing Remo D'souza 's vision to life .

In a line it's a simple film with some great dance sequences mixed with doses of emotions and drama .  Must watch for dance lovers .Can be seen in theaters .

Rank-  6  (Out of 11 Films I have seen in 2013 )