Review of Luka Chuppi

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Vinay Pathak, Aparshakti Khurrana

Luka Chuppi, set in Mathura, is a situational comedy about a local news channel reporter, Guddu Shukla who falls in love with a politician's daughter, Rashmi and wants to marry her. Rashmi likes Guddu but wants to be sure about him before taking the final plunge.

The first half is slow with introduction of characters, occasional songs and few comic scenes.
In the second half there are few plot twists which make the story slightly better but in the absence of strong emotions the viewers don't feel connected to the characters.

Laxman Utekar, who has been the cinematographer for films like Dear Zindagi, 102 Not Out, English Vinglish and Hindi Medium, makes his directorial debut with Luka Chuppi.
The film is shot in Mathura and Gwalior and gives a good tour of both the cities.

Kartik Aryan and Kriti Sanon use the local lingo but they look too urbane in some scenes. They share a good chemistry but there isn't even one scene where we could see the love and understanding between them.
Aparshakti Khurrana has a small role but manages to leave an impact.
Talented actors like Pankaj Tripathi and Vinay Pathak are totally wasted in their poorly written  roles.

The film will manage to collect around 50 Crores in its first week because of Kartik Aryan’s popularity and no competition from Sonchiriya.

In a line, despite good performances by Kartik Aryan and Kriti Sanon, an average story and lack of emotional quotient will effect the financial prospects of the film.

Timepass. One time watch.

Bareilly Ki Barfi..Not sweet enough

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Seema Pahwa, Rohit Choudhury, Swati Semwal

Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

A house where nothing is normal

A free spirited girl

A broken-hearted boy

A little secret

Bareilly and all its small town charm

Bareilly ki Barfi had all the ingredients for a hit film.

The film starts with a voiceover of Javed Akhtar telling us about “Mishra Sadan” where nothing is normal. We are introduced to Bitti Mishra and her parents. Bitti shares amazing chemistry with her parents and we laugh at the events happening in their lives.

After 20 minutes, Ayushman Khurana makes his

entry and the story starts taking a predictable turn.

Like a typical small-town story the hero has a best friend who is his partner in every crime but doesn't hesitate in telling him that,“Bhaiya, aap bahute neech ho”.

After some time the story takes us to the third character, Rajkumar Rao and his opening scene is so hilarious that our hopes are raised.

There are many small incidents which make us laugh and with Javed Akhtar telling us

“Ek chalbaaz nahi, doosra Rangbaaz nahi par ek chaal Bana Raha hai, doosra jama Raha hai”, the first half comes to an end.

After interval the story manages to keep us entertained for another 15 minutes and then as if the writer/director has lost all interest in the plot, the story goes in all directions and ends in a very predictable manner.

Initially, Kriti Sanon gets good screen space and her body language and dialogue delivery is good too. She ends most of her lines with “Hai ki Nahi” or “laga lo 100-100 ki”, which is both cute and funny. But once the heroes make their entry she is reduced to being a showpiece, dancing to the occasional songs.

When Ayushman Khurana is being bad he is really good but as the love bug bites him he loses his charm. By the time he says with a long face, “Aakhir pyar ne hame doosre ki khushi mai bhi khush hona sikha hi diya”, everyone in the audience yawned in boredom.

Rajkumar Rao has got the best scenes and lines and he has played them to perfection.

Pankaj Tripathi, who plays Bitti's father is too good. In the scenes where he speaks with guthka in his mouth, he does it with so ease we forget that he's acting.

Seema Pahwa as the typical “log kya kahenge” Mummy gives equal competition to Pankaj Tripathi. In every guy who comes to her home, she sees a prospective groom for her daughter. When she asks them, 'Shadi ho gayi hai kya tumhari’ and the boy says “No” you can feel her happiness and the interest with which she serves them tea and snacks.

When the director, Ashwini Iyer Tewari has debuted with a socially relevant yet entertaining film like Nil Battey Sannata and the writer has given us the film of the decade, Dangal, we expect nothing less than a masterpiece.

In the film Javed Akhtar says in the end

“Agli baar jab aap Bareilly aye to jhumka dhoodne ki jagah Bareilly ki Barfi khana mat bhooliyega.”

Sadly the film hardly leaves any long lasting impression on the minds of the viewers and Bareli will still be remembered for the, “Jhumka gira re, Bareli ke bazaar mein” song from Mera Saaya (1966).

In a line, Bareilly Ki Barfi is just a light hearted film which one can watch for few funny scenes and hilarious dialogues.

Timepass

Raabta- Divine Love and Reincarnation, Recipe for disaster

Director- Dinesh Vijan

Budget- 50 Crores approximately

Best Dialogue- "Agar roze nahi rakhe to phir Eid ka kya maza."

Raabta's first look suggested that it was a mushy romantic comedy and as we all are suckers for a good romance, we eagerly awaited for its trailer.

In the trailer, Irffan Khan says, "Ab ye bhi koi kahaani hai, chalo kahaani badalte hai, raja badalte hai, rani badalte hai, kal jo adhoora tha aaj badalte hai", we realized that it was a reincarnation drama and half of the buzz of the film was lost.

Then we were shown a glimpse of the item song "Raabta" featuring Deepika Padukone and some buzz was again created.

Guess the leading lady Kirti Sanon wasn't much pleased with this shifting of focus towards Deepika's long legs so the makers took J Star's hit song "Mai Tera Boyfriend" where we get to see Sushant's six packs and Kriti's long legs. Sadly, this song was kept at the end of the film and most of the audience had already left after watching Deepika's item number.

The hero is from a middle class family who does stupid things like jumping from bridges and his logic is, "Saare din mai legal kaam karta raha to bacchon ko kahaniyan kya sunaunga?"

Yes, that's how bad the character development is and it is followed by worse lines like, "Meetha Bechti Hai Par Dard-E-Dil Dikhta Hai Teri Ankhon Se" or "24 Ghante Tu Itna Acha Smell Kaise Karti Hai? Kaunsa Sabun Lagati Hai?" 

It could have been intentional as even the heroine tells him, "Kitna Cheesy Hai Tu?" to which our hero replies, "Mera Kuch Part Chocolaty Bhi Hai"!

I'm still wondering what that line meant.

In the first half of the film both the hero and heroine keep saying "hum kar kya rahe hai". After the interval the heroine gets to know what is going on and there is one more character who from the beginning knew what was going on. Then when the heroine tries to tell the hero the reason behind their actions he doesn't believe her.

If this sounds confusing to you then you have no option left but to spend 2 and a half hours of your precious time and some hard earned money and find how everything is connected.

The starting credits thanked Deepika Padukone, Rajkumar Rao and 10 other people. During the whole film I kept waiting for Rajkumar's appearance and later when i googled, I came to know that the highly insignificant role of the 300 year old man was enacted by him.

Jim Sarbh, who excelled as the terrorist in Neerja, plays a rich NRI but guess he can't decide between Pakistani accent or British accent and so talks like a mentally retarded person saying stupid lines like, "Mujhe dekhne se fursat mile, to kaunsi drink piyogi bata dena".

It's surprising that Dinesh Vijan of Maddock films who chose to produce a sensible film like Hindi Medium selected Raabta for his own directorial debut.

The film was released in 1800 theaters and got an opening of just 5.6 Crores. The film will be lucky if it can even make a lifetime earning of 25 Crores which is less than half of the film's budget.

In a line, item songs and chemistry between the lead pair can bring the audience to the theaters but it's only the content accompanied by good dialogues and acting which can make the film a hit.

Avoidable

Dilwale ~ An attack on the hearts (read mind) of fans

Release date - 18th December 2015

One Word which describes the film - Mediocre

Best Dialogue - 'Hum shareef kya hue ... poori duniya hi badmash ban gayi.'

Genre - Romance/ Action/ Comedy

Music - Pritam Chakraborty

Producer - Gauri Khan, Rohit Shetty

Story - Yunus Sajawal

Direction - Rohit Shetty

Cast- Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Vinod Khanna, Johnny Lever , Sanjay Mishra, Boman Irani 

Budget- 100 Crores Approximately

First of all I want to say that I am not a fan of Rohit Shetty kind of comedy. I loved Singham (2011) but as it was a remake of the 2010 Tamil blockbuster Singam not much credit can be given to Rohit Shetty for it.

When you have the money and talented actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Vinod Khanna, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Mishra and Boman Irani it's really disappointing to see a film which reminds you of several other films you have already seen in the past.

The film starts with a very colorful set where the houses, streets, cafes have all the colors of rainbow which instantly remind you of Shetty's All The Best: Fun Begins (2009). Like Ajay Devgan here also our lead actors are car mechanics who modify cars.

For the next 40 minutes the film just keeps going on and on without any proper story-line. We wonder why Varun Dhawan who gave an award winning performance earlier this year in Badlapur agreed to play a character where he has to talk in a kiddish voice and say insignificant dialogues like, 'Mai apki maang mai sindoor bharna chahta hoon' (this to SRK).

When Kajol makes her entry the film catches some speed and we get engrossed in her style and beauty. Quite a makeover I must say as no where she looked like a mother of two kids. Her chemistry with Shahrukh is perfect. 

Shahrukh Khan sports two looks in the film. In his clean shaven look he reminds us of Raj from DDLJ but here he is called 'Kali'. In his bearded look when he looks like a gangster (the same look he has kept for his upcoming film Raees) the director calls him Raj. Guess the director got confused between the looks and names.

Jhonny Lever is back as Mani Bhai and brings the same 1990's kind of comedy.

Mani Bhai - Ye tune do ghadi kyun nikaali?
Veer: Main ye dono ghadi chor ke haathon me pehna dunga, is se wo do ghadi ka mehmaan ho jayega.

There is a 5 minute date scene in the film which Rohit Shetty has straightaway copied from the 2 minutes date from Hollywood series How I  met your mother.

The film has the usual cars colliding and flying in air. The only difference is that Scorpios have been replaced by BMWs and instead of small time gangsters we have mafias who deal in gold and use high end rifles.

Two songs of the film 'Rang De Tu Mohe Gerua and 'Janam Janam' sung by Arijit Singh are quite melodious. 'Rang De Tu Mohe Gerua' shot in Iceland reminds us of 'Suraj Hua Maddham' from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.

In a line the film is made to cash on the chemistry of Shahrukh and Kajol and their fans will watch it.

Time-pass 

Review of Heropanti

Release date – 23'rd May 2014

One Word which describes the film – Entertainer

Best Dialogue -
Prakash Raj: Heropanti karega ?
Tiger- Kya karu yaar...Sabko aati nahi.. Meri jaati nahi

Genre – Action/ Romance

Music – Sajid-Wajid , Manj Musik

Producer- Sajid Nadiadwala

Story -Sanjeev Dutta

Direction -Sabbir Khan

Cast -Tiger Shroff ,Prakash Raj , Kriti Sanon , Sandeepa Dhar

Budget- 25- 30 Crores

'Mirror mirror on the wall , who's the fairest one of all ?'

This is the thought which came in every one's mind when we saw the first promos of Heropanti . Tiger Shroff with his milk and peaches complexion , rosy lips ,chiseled face and broad smile soon became the topic of whattsapp jokes and people started trolling him by comparing him with Kareena and other fair ladies. 

Basically there is nothing new in the story and the film takes inspiration from all Bollywood films you must have seen over the years . 

There is a song shot in snow covered mountains where the heroine dances around in dazzling sarees and sleeveless blouses. The hero watches the heroine eating something and falls in love with her. The hero's shirt automatically disappears while the villain is beating him. There are the friends who get tortured every now and then. There is the hero who tells the heroine to do what her heart wants and the list goes on.

So how does one manages to leave a mark in a very ordinary story. This is where Tiger stands tall and outshines everyone. The confidence he shows in the film comes from hours and hours of practice and the knowledge that he is perfect in what he is doing. His dance moves are smooth , his stunts look realistic , his body language relaxed and he manages to give just the right expression in all the scenes. The writer has woven the story around him in such a way that from start to end Tiger does just Heropanti , he doesn't do any work , his family is not shown, we don't even know if he stays with his parents or in some hostel. 

Sabbir Khan who made his directorial debut with Kambakkht Ishq (2009) has managed to give Bollywood an athletic action hero who can give Vidyut Jamwal , another action hero and martial artist ,  a run for his money.

Kriti's job in the film is to look pretty and dance along with the hero. She provides the required glamour but doesn't leave any mark on our mind.

Prakash Raj's character is the most confusing character in the film. Initially he is shown as a ruthless Haryanvi who kills people in cold blood and can go to any extent to save his family honour. But as the film progresses he turns into an emotional father who cries and gives long speeches about his love for his children . It was like we were witnessing a person facing a double personality disorder.

The film has collected over 30 crores in 5 days which is a very good number considering the way the critics and the classes shunned the film.

According to Amir Khan and other celebrities ' A star is born ' and  guess a happy Jacky Shroff can finally relax and enjoy his son's success. 

In a line the film is a full masala entertainer with the perfect dose of action , comedy , drama , music and dance.

Timepass . Can be seen in theaters.