Review of Sonchiriya

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Ranvir Shorey, Ashutosh Rana, Manoj Bajpai, Jatin Sarna

“Apni apni Sonchiriya, apni apni mukti.”

Sonchiriya, set in the Chambal of the seventies is a tale of rebellion, justice and salvation. There are several gangs of dacoits (called baaghi in the film) who live in Chambal and have their own set of principles. They question each other about the “dharma of the baaghi” but fail to give satisfactory answers.

There are fights between police and baaghis, within family members, between Gujjars and Thakurs and also between villagers and baaghis.

We are shown that the baaghis live a difficult life where there is no surety of life, they don't know when they will get food or where they will take shelter.  They know that surrender is not an option as mostly the police is going to shoot them at sight.
Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar and Ranveer Shourie are the soul of the film. They are so good in their respective roles that you actually sympathise with them even when you know the crimes they have committed and their dark secrets.

Manoj Bajpai and Ashutosh Rana outshine in their short roles.

In his earlier films like Ishqiya, Dedh ishqiya and Udta Punjab, Abhishek Chaubey has always shown strong female characters. Here though the females are shown as victims they do have that internal strength which makes them survivors.

There are only 3 female characters Indumati Tomar, Phulwa and the youngest of them named Sonchiriya but how these characters change the life of the others is what the film is about.

According to a female character, Phulwa, “Division according to caste is only for men and the women have a different caste which comes lowest in this social system.”

If you saw the film's trailer, you know that the film is not everyone's cup of tea.
Sonchiriya’s Trailer link-
https://youtu.be/aejAkKGiimk

The film starts with a shootout where many baaghis are encountered and throughout the film there is violence, bloodshed and elaborate fight sequences. There is hardly any entertainment for the family audience because of which despite good reviews the film couldn't do much business over the weekend.
It was released in 720 screens and collected just 4.5 Crores over the weekend which is nothing as compared to 32 Crores income of Luka Chuppi.

It’s a minor setback for the producers, RSVP films as they are still reaping money from their last release, URI, The Surgical Strike.

In a line, despite good performances by the lead actors, Sonchiriya couldn't attract much audience but may become a cult film with passage of time.

Can be seen in theatres if you like this genre.

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.

Review of Kriti

Release Date- 22nd June on You Tube

Genre- Psychological Thriller

Cast- Manoj Bajpai, Radhika Apte, Neha Sharma

Direction/ Background Score/ Editing- Shirish Kunder

Production- Muvizz.com

Releasing short films on You Tube came into fashion after film makers realized that the younger generation preferred You Tube over TV and even theaters.
Sirish Kunder who has been black listed in the audiences' mind for making films like Jaaneman and Joker has tried to reclaim his directorial skills with this 18 minutes short film.
The film starts with Manoj Bajpai's interaction with his psychiatrist. In just a short span of time his expressions turn from excitement to anxiety to anger and finally to realisation. He will surely keep you guessing till the end.
Though Radhika Apte has acted in few films, she has the confidence of a seasoned actress. She has just 3 scenes but she will leave her impact on your mind.
Neha Sharma has done 4-5 films but she will always be remembered as the girl with a chirpy voice, long legs and no expressions. She just adds glamour to the film.
Background music is a bit weak. Overall the film is fast and triggers your thinking process.

In a line you can surely find 18 minutes from your busy schedule for Manoj Bajapi, the guy who has entertained you since the mega TV serial, Swabhimaan (Doordarshan) days.

You Tube link of the film ~
https://t.co/p91XOtLp77

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) 

Review of Shootout at Wadala

Release date – 3'rd May 2013 

One Word which describes the film – Triple A

Best  Dialogue – 

' Baadshah ki gali mein aake uska pata nahin poochhte. Ghulamo ke jhuke hue sar khud ba khud raasta bata dete hain.'

Genre – Action / Crime
 
Story - Sanjay Gupta , Hussain Zaidi ( Dongri to Dubai )

Music – Anu Malik , Mustafa Zahid , Anand Raj Anand , Nadeem Saifi , Anjjan Meet

Producer -  Sanjay Gupta , Anuradha Gupta ,Ekta Kapoor , Shobha Kapoor

Direction - Sanjay Gupta

Cast - John Abraham , Kangna Ranaut , Anil Kapoor , Tusshar Kapoor , Sonu Sood , Manoj Bajpai , Mahesh Manjrekar , Ronit Roy

Budget – 40 crores (approximately)

Sanjay Gupta is known for his dark thrillers { Kaante (2002),Musafir (2004) ,  Zinda (2005) } but this time he has come up with a film so full of violence , cuss words and sex that it can be considered as Bollywood's answer to XXX Films.

The film is based on the first ever police encounter and outlines the gang wars as it culminates into a three-way epic face-off between the gangsters,  Manya Surve , Haskar brothers and Mumbai police.

Sanjay Gupta who has returned to direction after 8 years has left no stone unturned to make this film a commercial hit. 
The main strength of the film is it's powerful dialogues written by Milan Zaveri . Every character has a couple of lines which make the audience whistle and clap for them .

John Abraham, as the main protagonist of the film gets the best dialogues , best action sequences and the chance to romance the sole heroine in the film Kangana Ranaut . Though in the start his dialogue delivery is flat but as he works on building his body in the prison there is also some improvement in his acting. So there are actually claps from the audience when he says 'haddi se lekar kanoon tak, sab todta hoon' 

Manoj Bajpai and Sonu Sood are perfect for the role of  Haskar brothers. They represent style and power with hidden cruelity which is shown when they kill another gangster with a fruit juicer.

Anil Kapoor as the police officer  who wants to get the city rid of gangsters has given an action  packed performance .He looks fit and smart and makes us wish there were more police officers like him in real life.

Sanjay Gupta's passion for perfection can be seen when he spends over Rs 2 crores only on shooting one sequence featuring an old BEST bus from the 70s. “The sequence would have cost us under under a crore, but we had to get a vintage bus which was not available and even when we managed to get one, it wasn’t allowed to enter Mumbai city. Because of that we had to shoot the sequence outside the city, which tripled our budget and we ended up spending more than Rs 2.6 crore,” said Gupta in an interview.

There are  three  item songs, where  Sunny Leone , Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Choudhry  seem to compete with each other in showing the maximum cleavage and doing the most provocative steps.

In a  line if you are over 18 and like gangster flicks there is no reason for you to avoid this film.
Good one time theater watch .
Rank- 9 (out of the 26 films I have seen in 2013)

Review of Special 26

Release date - 8'th February 2013

One Word which describes the film – Enthralling

Best  Dialogue – 

"Asli power dil main hoti hai "

Genre - Heist drama 
 
Story - Neeraj Pandey

Music – M. M. Keeravani, Himesh Reshammiya

Producer -  Viacom 18 Motion Pictures , Friday Filmworks , Kumar Mangat

Direction - Neeraj Pandey

Cast -  Anupam Kher , Akshay Kumar , Kajal Aggarwal , Jimmy Shergill , Manoj Bajpai , 

Budget – 35 crores(approximately)

Special 26 was indeed special as after many years I saw a completely packed theater and the audience clapping and whistling for a film which didn't star Salman Khan . 
In Anupam Kher words " asli power film ki story main hoti hai " . The story and screenplay were perfect and had no loose ends . To create a 80's kind of setup the director showed us a clipping featuring Rajeev Gandhi , a cricket match where Sunil Gavaskar was playing and Manoj Bajpayee driving a 'lambretta' . Even the background music reminded us of the 80's films .

Neeraj Pandey has not wasted a single minute in the story . Akshay's love story was explained to us through a 5 min song . With this film he has proved that his expertise in  A Wednesday was not a flash in the pan and he is here to stay .
It is good that the director didn't try to give an Indian touch to the film by showing that that they used the loot money for social causes or charity .

Akshay Kumar was perfect in the role of an over confident master mind . His acting was at par with Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpayee. In some scenes he even excelled them . Every character was significant to the film however  big and small their role was .  Divya Dutta has just one dialogue which she says three time but every time she uses it a 'twist in the tale ' follows .

In a line the film unfolds like a magic show and keeps the viewers enthralled till the end . Must watch . See it before someone tells you the story and breaks the magic.

Rank- 1  (Out of the 13 films I have seen in 2013 )

Gangs Of Wasseypur is not everyone's cup of tea

Gangs of Wasseypur is an epic two part mafia drama about deep-rooted family rivalries. Vengeance, blind ambition and greed oil the wheels of a long-running blood feud between competing godfathers in the  mining towns of Wasseypur and Dhanbad.

 The film opens with a teasing flash-forward to the end of the story, when a gang armed  with bombs and machine guns blast their way into their enemy’s house .

In the first half , the early history of Faizal’s family is told, beginning with the rise of his grandfather Shahid Khan in the days when coal mines represented wealth and power. Shahid Khan  (Jaideep Ahlawat), who is eventually murdered by the young owner of the coal mines, Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia)  , setting off a power struggle between the two clans that lasts till the final reel.

Shahid’s hot-blooded son Sardar (Manoj Bajpai ) shaves his head, vowing not to grow his hair until he exacts revenge for his father’s death. His passion for two women Nagma (Richa Chadda) and Durga (Reemma Sen)gives him a human side and consists of the most entertaining and lighter side of the film.   Sardar’s violent nature makes him the godfather, a role he keeps until betrayed at a gas station.

In the second part  Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a hash smoking pothead, climbs the ladder to power after taking revenge from those who betrayed his father. His romancing Mohsina (Huma Qureshi) is one of the film’s non-violent high points. Addicted to romantic movies,  Mohsina wears the same Ray Bans as Faizal, by which they recognize they are soul mates.

The film's music is one of it's important strengths.  Sneha Khanwalkar  (earlier worked on Love Sex aur Dhokha and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!  )  did a lot of research  into the music . The music is rooted in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sneha went to the smaller villages in Bihar and found real singers. The track Keh Ke Loonga has become synonymous with Gangs of Wasseypur.  The experimental folk music suits the story and is soothing without taking our mind from the main storyline .

Is  the film really a Hit as advertised by the media and  film producers ? 

The publicity team of 'Gangs of Wasseypur'  left no stone unturned in promoting the film, especially through the social networking sites.The film was screened and appreciated at prestigious film festivals across the globe, so the Indian audiences were excited  for its release. However, the response to the film is not as overwhelming as expected.

First part of GOW was produced with the budget of 9.4 cr nett along with a 7 crore -8crore promotion and advertising cost taking the total budget to 17 to 18 crores.

  

Film has earned  around 27 crore .That means film will have a distributor share of 12 crore and producers will get 14-15 cr from theaters. Film earned 6 cr from satellite rights and other streams. This will make full recovery in the region of 19-20 cr. This means a thin profit of 3-4 crores. If a film earns such a slim profit even after huge promotions then it should be termed as a disappointment.  ( Paan Singh Tomar (film) , Vicky Donor , Hate Story ) all had lower promotion budget in comparison to GOW but earned more ) .

 The combined budget of both the parts is Rs.18.5 crores but expenditure on marketing takes the budget to around Rs.36 crores -40 crores, thus making it  the first big budget film by Anurag Kashyap. Anurag Kashyap has produced the film with Viacom18 as co-producer.

With The Dirty Picture stopped from being screened on the prime time, buyers of satellite rights have become cautious about buying  A grade films like Gangs of Wasseypur .    

The Second part is scheduled to release a week before Ek Tha Tiger. So, its Second Week and Lifetime Collections would be largely affected.

Reasons why Gangs of Wasseypur  didn’t click with the audience –

1.The  historical references and the details of how the coal mafia works though were informative but they also made the film slow and gave  a documentary feel to the film.

 2. The screenwriter  attempted to embed the tale in a historical and political context but  it failed to leave an impact  amid all the mayhem.

  

3. The first half of the film was entertaining but it started getting on the nerves after the 10 minute journey of slaughterhouse and hanging carcasses.

  

 4. Extensive use of coarse abuses  kept the family audience away from the film.

5. The highlights of Part 1 were Manoj Bajpayee's acting and Anurag Kashyap's story telling. But in the second part there is no Manoj and we already know the storyline .

6.Those who didn’t watch part 1 will surely  give the second part a miss and half of the audience who saw part 1 and were tortured by the bloodshed and unnecessary violence( like me)  will surely avoid it .

Anurag Kashyap  has  never followed a fixed path and is known for dark themes .But the one thing he must understand about cinema is that something should be left to the imagination of the viewers. Killing people in every scene with swords, bullets or bombs is not the kind of entertainment an average movie goer expects. Violence can be conveyed through words too.