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.

Review of Calendar Girls

Release date - 25'th September 2015

One Word which describes the film - Déjà vu

Best Dialogue - 'Yahan pe log rone ke liye kandha nahi dete, marne tak ka intezar karte hai.'

Genre - Drama

Music -Meet Bros Anjjan, Amaal Mallik

Producer - Sangeeta Ahir, Bhandarkar Entertainment

Story & Direction -Madhur Bhandarkar

Cast - Akanksha Puri, Avani Modi, Kyra Dutt, Ruhi Singh, Satarupa Pyne, Keith Sequeira, Mita Vashishth

Budget- 10 Crores approximately

Madhur Bhandarkar is known for making films with strong female characters. Whether it was Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Konkona Sen Sharma in Page 3, Bipasha Basu in Corporate, Neetu Chandra inTraffic Signal, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion or Kareena Kapoor in Heroine each character was well written and managed to touch the audiences heart.

Calendar Girls has five characters Nandita from Hyderabad(Akanksha Puri), Nazneen from London (Avan Modi), Sharon from Goa(Kyra Dutt), Mayuri from Rohtak (Ruhi Singh) and  Paroma from Kolkata (Satarupa Pyne). They are selected by a leading company to pose for that year's calendar.

The girls with their photographer played by Rohit Roy go to Mauritius for the calendar shoot. In just 1 song and 10 minutes the calendar shoot wraps up and the film moves to how the lives of the girls change after their rise to fame. So for the next 1 hour 40 minutes we get to see the same shocking truths, same betrayals, same artificial lives and behaviors which we have seen numerous times.

We see one character telling the other, 'Pakistani ladkiyan bhi utne hi bold kam karti hai jitni baki ladkiya karti hai, balki kabhi kabhi usse jyada bhi', maybe the reason why the film is banned in Pakistan.

Then we have VJ turned actor, Keith Sequeira telling another character ,'Cricket league is desh ka sabse bada gambling adda hai', which reminds you of Emran Hashmi's , Jannat.
Then one character's manager tells her that some big shot is shooting in the neighboring studio and we are shown that the big shot is none other than Madhur Bhandarkar. Madhur tells the girl, 'Mujhe hero ke nakhre nahin jhelne isliye main heroine-oriented films banata hoon' conveniently forgetting that he directed Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011) too.

Khwaishein written by Kumaar, sung by Arijit Singh and composed by Amaal Mallik is a melodious song

Kahaan le aayi khwahishein
Hai dard ki ye jo baarishein
Hai ghalti dil ki yaa phir
Hai waqt ki ye saazishein

But then there was a similar song sung by Shreya Ghoshal and composed by Salim & Sulaiman  in Bhandarkar's last film  Heroine (2012)

Zindagi ko dheere dheere

Dasti hain khwahishein

Aansun ko peete peete
Hansti hain khwahishein
Uljhi hui kashmakash mein
Umar kat jaati hai.

In an interview Bhandarkar said, 'My movies are not judgmental. I just show what happens in our society, sometimes there could be a solution and sometimes there may be none. Life goes on.'

So now that Calendar Girls has not done well at the box office (6 Crores in 7 days),  Madhur should also move on and try to present something new to his fans. 

In a line apart from the 5  debutantes there is nothing new which you haven't seen before and it's a sum total of all the revelations Bhandarkar has shown in his earlier films in all these years.

Time-pass. Can be seen if you have nothing better to do.

Hero ~ Great Expectations Quashed

Release date - 11'th Sep 2015

One Word which describes the film - Disappointing

Best Dialogue - 'Main bhale hi Radha se door ho jaun, par zindagi bhar usi se pyar karunga. Koi rok sake to rok le.'

Genre - Romance/Action

Music -Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan, Sachin-Jigar

Producer - Salman Khan, Subhash Ghai

Story - Based on Hero by Subhash Ghai

Direction - Nikhil Advani

Cast - Sooraj Pancholi, Athiya Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, Tigmanshu Dhulia

Budget- 35 Crores approximately

In the 90's there came a flood of romantic films and along with it a lot of new heroes like Salman, Amir, Saif, Akshay and Ajay Devgan. In 25 years the quality of the films and the tastes of the audiences changed but we still get to see the same 45 plus heroes romancing new heroines.

Sooraj Pancholi came as a breath of fresh air, an innocent face, well chiseled body, good dancing skills and a nice voice. Athiya Shetty looked like a younger version of Sonam Kapoor, same height, same body language, chirpy voice and exactly no expressions on her face even in the most bizarre situations.

So these were the two debutantes with whom Salman Khan decided to make a film without any concern for the budget. Hero is the second film under the banner of Salman Khan Films after the blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan and is the remake of Hero (983) directed by Subhash Ghai so obviously there were huge expectations from the film.

Sooraj is shown as a hot blooded small time gunda who spends half of his time in the gym and the other half in fighting with shady characters and helping the needy. When he made his entry one of the goons said , ' Hero ki tarah enttry mari hai to khud ko hero samajhne laga hai?'

Athiya is the pampered girl of IG Mathur who loves partying, clubbing, clicking selfies and dancing.

The film started in a good way and the innocent love between the youngsters looked quite real. But lack of proper screenplay and absence of powerful dialogues soon made the film too dull and boring.

Whereas in the original film Meenakshi gets to say dialogues like, Pyar ek imtihaan hai, aur nateeje se darne waalo ka pyar jhoota hota hai' in this film Athiya says lines like,'Agar aapne mujhe isilye mara kyunki main Suraj se pyaar karti hoon to mujhe phir se maariye.' 

Tigmanshu Dhulia plays the role of  IGP Shrikanth Mathur which was played by Late Shammi Kapoor . He looks tired and exhausted in most  of the scenes and the only dialogue which you will remember once the film ends is,'Beta mujhe Sir nahi Daddy kaho .' After playing a powerful character like Ramadhir Singh in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and directing the award winning  Paan Singh Tomar(2012), Tigmanshu should stay away from doing such films.

Aditya Pancholi plays the role of Pasha which was done by Late Amrish Puri in the original film. He is shown in silken kurtas and freshly laundered dhotis which make us wonder that in which prisons such facilities are given. His dialogues of taking revenge from those who have wronged him sound too real but in the full film we hardly get to see his words turning to action.

When Amrish Puri said,' Mere hi kutte ne mujhe kaata' there was disgust and seething anger in his voice but Aditya saying,'15 saal ka pyar 15 din mai hi bhool gaya, sounded more like a plea for help. That's the power of dialogues and their effect on the viewers.

The only dialogue which had an impact was when Athiya says,'Pyar karne wale kabhi darte nahi, jo darte hain wo pyar karte nahi', which we all know is a hit song from the original film.

In an interview Salman admitted that releasing the music just a week prior to the film's release wasn’t a great idea. Because of Salman's popularity the "Main Hoon Hero Tera" sung by him became a hit but other songs despite being melodious failed to click with the audience.

In a line Hero has Zero chances of being another super-hit film and this is that one film which even loyal Salman Khan fans will give a miss.

Not worth spending money on. Can be seen when is aired on TV.

Review of Ek Paheli Leela - Director's Cut

Release date - 10'th April 2015

One Word which describes the film - Soft-porn

Worst Dialogue - "Glamour industry main success ka short cut -short skirt." 

Genre - Musical/ Thriller 

Music -Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan

Producer - Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Ahmed Khan, Shaira Khan

Story & Direction -Bobby Khan

Cast -Sunny Leone, Jay Bhanushali, Rajneesh Duggal, Rahul Dev, Mohit Ahlawat, Rahul Dev, Jas Arora

Budget- 15-20 crores (approximately)

While the world and his wife are busy criticising Leela and Sunny Leone, very few people noticed that in just  a week the film has managed to collect more money than Anushka Sharma starrer NH10 or Sushant Singh Rajput's Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.

If Sunny Leone was the trump card behind the film's success then her earlier films Jism2 and Jackpot too should have minted money for the producers.

Now let's look at Bobby Khan who makes his directorial debut with this film. Since the age of 19, Bobby Khan is producing & choreographing fashion shows with top Indian and international supermodels. He has directed many music videos and most of them have topped the charts.

Sunny Leone plays the double role of Meera (supermodel from Milan) and Leela. The film has 4 item songs where the lead actress dresses in bare minimums and makes love to the camera. Then there are four other melodious songs where Sunny gets to show her beauty and  milk and honey skin.

Sunny Leone is not known for her dancing so Bobby gave this task to his brother Ahmad Khan and Saroj Khan who managed to get a decent performance from her.

With 35 minutes of the film safely covered, the director writes a reincarnation story spanning 300 years and takes us from the streets of London to the deserts of Jodhpur.

There are huge sets where the film is shot and no expenses are spared in creating exotic looks for Sunny while shooting the item songs.  

Sunny is the object of desire of all the male actors in the film and so she gets the maximum focus and screen space.The problem starts once she starts delivering dialogues. Sunny trying to say dialogues in Rajasthani is like Sonia Gandhi giving speech in Hindi.

Jay Bhanushali bears the same tormented expressions throughout the film.

Mohit Ahlawat was described as the next superstar when he made his debut in 2005 through James. After 10 years he has lost most of the star quality and looks old. His face lacks expressions and then he gets to utter stupid dialogues like 'Ranveer Singh par chali har goli apna rasta khud hi bhatak jati hai.'

Rahul Dev manages to give a fairly decent performance.

Rajneesh Duggal has a small role where he has to romance Sunny and dance with her. He looks good but like others remains expressionless throughout the film.   

Jas Arora has got the worst treatment in the film. Everything from his hairstyle to his clothes are cheap and somehow his voice is dubbed to make him sound like Gulshan Grover.

VJ Andy and Ehsaan Qureshi have small roles where mostly they are uttering suggestive double meaning dialogues to each other.

In a line if you like to watch beauty and you have nothing better to do then you can watch this extended scenic musical album.

Timepass.

Review of Singham Returns

Release date - 15'th August 2014

One Word which describes the film -
Mass entertainer

Best Dialogue - 

' Aaj raajneeti mei sabko insecurity hai is liye sabke paas security hai . Mujhe kaun marega?

Genre - Action

Music -Jeet Gannguli ,Ankit Tiwari,Meet Bros Anjjan, Yo Yo Honey Singh

Producer - Reliance Entertainment ,Ajay Devgan,Rohit Shetty

Story- Sajid-Farhad

Direction - Rohit Shetty

Cast - Ajay Devgan ,Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amole Gupte , Anupam Kher, Dayanand Shetty

Budget- 70 Crores

In 2011 Rohit Shetty created a character Bajirao Singham which became an instant hit with the audience. His dialogues 'Aata majhi satakli' and 'Jismain hai dum,toh fakht Bajirao Singham' were used in day to day conversations. The film was a big hit.

Singham Returns has Bajirao Singham in the role of DSP of Mumbai. The film like its prequel has lots of action, powerful dialogues and strong on screen hatred between the protagonist and the villain.

Ajay Devgan is the life and soul of the film. His body language and expressions are so perfect that we forget the hero Ajay and just think of the honest policeman who leads a tough life. His eyes express his anguish when his subordinates become victims of the corrupt system.

Amol Gupte as the fraud and corrupt Baba gives tough competition to our Hero. He is merciless but his body language is funny .His dialogues like 'Tu do baar BA kar lega na to bhi BABA nahi ban payega' are hilarious and make us laugh. Despite this, Prakash Raj's character as a villain in Singham was better written and had more scope of creating fear in the minds of the viewers.

Kareena Kapoor Khan provides fun and glamour in the film. Her role has no significance in the basic story and could have been done by any other heroine. At this stage in her career when Kareena can choose any kind of roles she should stay away from such films.

Anupam Kher and Mahesh Majrekar have small roles but they manage to leave an impact on the minds of the viewers.

Rohit Shetty surely has a funny bone as even in the most tensed situations he manages to make the audiences laugh when Ajay tells his junior Daya( who also plays the same role in CID) ' Daya, darwaza tod do.'

The audience was totally engrossed throughout the film and whenever the hero succeeded in a task it was greeted by lots of clappings and whistles. 

Due to Independence Day release the film had a huge opening of 32.09 crore , beating Kick's opening of 26 crore and has become the biggest opener of 2014. The film has collected 80 crores in three days and is going to become Ajay Devgan's biggest hit till date.

In a line though the film has the usual good conquers evil theme but the story is fast and will surely entertain you.
Must watch. Can be seen with family and kids.