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 Dolly ki Doli

Release date -23'rd January 2015

One Word which describes the film - Déjà vu

Best Dialogue - Main waisi bahu nahi hoon jo sirf apne pati ko doodh dungi. Main sabko doodh dungi

Genre -Comedy 

Music -Sajid-Wajid

Producer - Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan

Story & Direction -Abhishek Dogra

Cast -Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Archana Puran Singh

Budget- 25 crores

Dolly ki Doli is a poor copy of many bollywood films where the central character is a con artist who makes people fall in love with them and then cheats them

We have Sonam Kapoor who has to look beautiful in various attires and woo the prospective grooms.

We have Salman Khan's protégé Pulkit Samrat who dresses up like Salman, copies his body language and is also called Robin (Robinhood of Dabangg) .

We have a strong artist like Rajkumar Rao who is totally wasted as a Haryanvi sugercane farmer.

We have Malaika Arora Khan who gives an item song which is a poor copy of Munni Badnam and Anarkali.

The other artist try to make us laugh but as the film is too short even they don't get ample opportunity to leave any impact.

The story is weak and though there are few surprises in between, soon the film becomes repetitive and predictable.

The same formula must have worked in earlier films but this time there was no Big Brother Salman to save the film.

Sonam Kapoor as usual looks good in all the get ups and has tried to pull the film on her delicate shoulders but the weak script doesn't give her much scope to shine.

Sajid Wajid have tried to put an item song, a wedding song, club no. in the hope of getting a chartbuster but apart from "Mere Naina Kafir Hogaye"  none of the songs are memorable.

After registering big box office success with Dabangg and Dabangg2 this film has turned to be a big disappointment for Arbaz Khan. It collected around 10 crores in the weekend and it will be a task for the film to recover its production and marketing cost. 

In a line there is not much in the film which you haven't seen before.
Timepass. Can be seen in theaters only if you are a big Sonam Kapoor fan.

Review of Dawat-e-Ishq

Release date - 19'th September 2014

One Word which describes the film - Uncomplicated

Best Dialogue - Humari country main jabh tak black nahi diya tabh tak ghar nahi kahrid sakte, Dahej nahi diya toh shaadi nahi hoti.

Genre - Comedy/ Drama

Music -Sajid-Wajid

Producer - Aditya Chopra

Story & Direction -Habib Faisal

Cast -Aditya Roy Kapur ,Parineeti Chopra, Anupam Kher, Karan Wahi

Budget- 35 crores

Habib Faisal made his directorial debut with Do Dooni Chaar in 2010  followed by Ishaqzaade (2012).

This time he gives us another comedy drama which revolves around two simple hearted people who love good food and have their individual dreams in life.

The first half of the film is shot in Hyderabad and has Hyderabadi dialect. The second part shot in Lucknow has Hindi mixed with Urdu.

Anupam Kher and Parineeti Chopra share a good father daughter chemistry. The hero makes his entry quite late and afterwards too has nothing much to do except chop vegetables, serve food ,sing songs and dance.

The songs are quite like those of the 90's and hardly manage to leave any impact.

The basic problem in the film is that the story just keeps on going on and on without any twists and turns. There is no element of surprise and while you are watching one scene you can easily predict what will happen in the next scene.

If the hero was Salman Khan then even this film could have been a blockbuster but as Aditya Roy Kapoor hardly has any fan following it would be quite a task for the film to even recover its production and marketing budget.

In a line though this daawat doesn't promise any gourmet cuisine , the simple flavored love story may make you smile at places.

Time pass. Can be seen in theaters at your own risk. 

Review of Ishkq in Paris

Release date – 24'th May 2013

One Word which describes the film – Mediocre

Best  Dialogue – 'Pyar na keh kar ata hai , na bata kar jata hai .'

Genre – Romance

Story -Prem Raj ,Preity Zinta

Music – Sajid-Wajid

Producer - Preity Zinta , Neelu Zinta

Direction - Prem Raj

Cast – Preity Zinta , Rhehan Malliek , Isabelle Adjani

Budget - 10-12 crores (approximately) 

Before Sunrise (1995)  is a story of a young American and  a young French woman, who meet on a train and disembark in Vienna ,where they spend the night walking around the city and getting to know each other.

After 18 years Preity Zinta and Prem Raj come with a similar story where two strangers meet on a train from Rome to Paris and while chatting on board decide to spend an evening together in Paris , but with a commitment that afterwards they will never meet . 

Prem Raj who made his debut with Main Aurr Mrs Khanna has once again failed to click with the audience. I think in future he should let some expert writer write the story and just focus on the direction.

Preity Zinta was last seen in a small role in   Heroes (2008) . At 38 ,she has unsuccessfully  tried to relive the young and bubbly characters she played in  Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and  Salaam Namaste (2005) .

Rhehan who became popular in the role of Dr. Rahul Mehra in the tele-series Sanjivani  ,looked good  but the story was so simple that his role had no scope of giving any memorable performance.

Salman Khan 's dance no. ' Kudiye di Kurti ' was totally wasted as not even Salman's fans dared to watch this film in theaters .He must have done it to return the favor when Preity did an item no. in his film Main aur Mrs. Khanna.
  
Chunkey Pandey and Shekhar Kapoor in their 1 min roles were totally forgettable.

Though the film has flopped at the box office the producers won't make much loss as Colors has bought the film's satellite rights .
In a line with so many good romantic Hollywood and Bollywood films to choose from it's a waste of time to watch this average romance.
Not worth spending money on. Can be seen when it's aired on TV .

Rank - 19 (Out of the 28 films I have seen in 2013)