Baaghi~ What Audiences Want!

Release date- 29th April 2016

One Word which describes the film- Action-packed

Best Dialogue- 'Baaghi bano. Be a rebel,
par kisi maksad ke liye.'

Genre- Action/ Romance

Music-Meet Bros, Amaal Mallik, Ankit Tiwari
Manj Musik

Producer-Sajid Nadiadwala

Story- Sanjeev Dutta, Based on Telugu film Varsham (2004)

Direction- Sabbir Khan

Cast- Tiger Shroff, Shraddha Kapoor, Sudheer Babu, Sunil Grover 

Budget- 35 Crores approximately

On 23rd May 2014, Tiger Shroff made his debut through Heropanti which was also directed by Sabbir Khan, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, even the writer was the same and it was also a copy of a South Indian film. Despite being criticized for his unconventional looks and lack of expressions in intense scenes, Tiger Shroff was appreciated for his well chiseled and muscular body and a new action star was born.
Who can forget this cheesy dialogue which he repeats with utter confidence through out the film, 'Kya karu yaar, sabko aati nahi meri jati nahi'.

After two years the team gives us an exactly similar film, set in a different backdrop and it manages to earn 39 Crores in just 3 days.

So here's a key to decoding 'What the Audiences Want' from a film.

1. The story should be different yet be according to the Indian mindset of right and wrong.

(So the makers acquired rights of Telugu romance drama Varsham and then for inspiration saw The Raid: Redemption(2011),The Shaolin Temple (1982) & The Karate Kid(1984)

2. The heroine should be cute and love nature and be ready to dance like a peacock as soon as it rains.

3. Both the hero and heroine should laugh unnecessarily initially so that the audience gets to have an 'All is well' feeling.

4. There should be a comedian who cracks situational (read nonsensical) jokes whenever he enters the frame.

5. The heroine should expose but if she wears a bikini then it should cover more than it reveals, as obviously otherwise the film will be too 'Adult' for the family audience. Remember what happend to Shaandar (Alia in a miniscule fuschia bikini) or Bewakoofiyan (Sonam in an equally tiny pink bikini).

6. The hero while doing action scenes must rip off his shirt and show his well toned body and rippling muscles. The ultimate turn on for single screen's audience which you can gather from the whistles and claps.

7. The kiss should be just touching of the lips and not the 'Emran Hashmi' style because again 'family audience'.

8. After some deadly, bone-breaking action scene the hero must say some dialogue on a lighter note like, 'China ka maal tha, aur kitna chalta' which breaks the tension and the audience can again clap and cheer.

9. The villain must not be some slimy creep who acts like Prem Chopra but a good looking silent guy who becomes violent when he is rejected by the love of his life.

10. And last but not the least everything should fall in place by the end because we Indians love 'Happy Endings'. 

In a line nothing sells like an action-packed entertainer in India and this film is surely at par with all the Jackie Chan films one must have seen.

Time-pass. Can be seen for Tiger Shroff's action.

Return of The Marketing Queen - Ek Villain

Release date - 27'th June 2014

One Word which describes the film - Psychotic

Best Dialogues -
Shraddha Kapoor-  'Jab tak hum kisi ke humdard nahi bante  ,tab tak hum dard se aur dard humse juda nahi hota.'

Riteish Deshmukh - 'Tum sabki nikalti jaan ke sath ..meri har chinta , sara stress bhi nikal jata hai.'

Sidharth Malhotra -'Main tuujhe marne nahi doonga lekin main tujhe roz maroonga ..ek baar nahi hazar baar maroonga.'

Genre - Thriller 

Music -Ankit Tiwari , Mithoon

Story - Milap Zaveri , Tushar Hiranandani

Producer - Ekta Kapoor ,Shobha Kapoor

Direction -Mohit Suri

Cast - Sidharth Malhotra ,Riteish Deshmukh ,Shraddha Kapoor ,Aamna Sharif

Budget- 30 Crores

Ekta Kapoor may have made a wrong decision when she decided to release Once Upon a Time In Mumbaai Dobara along with Rohit Shetty's Chenai Express. She broke her own rule of producing small budget films and spent almost 25 crorers in P&A taking the film's cost to 90 Crores which the film could not recover and was a huge flop. In the same year two other films co produced by Balaji Productions Lootera and Ek Thi Daayan also flopped at the box office. 

Ekta Kapoor said good bye to big budgeted films and again shifted her focus to medium budgeted films with peppy songs and lots of marketing.

Ragini MMS2 made on a budget of 20 crores earned 40 crores with it's two songs Babydoll and Char botal Vodka becoming big hits.
Ek Villain much before it's release managed to create a big buzz amongst the younger generations because of its romantic songs, 'Teri Galliyan' , 'Banjara' and ' Main Adhura.' Not only the film was promoted on reality shows , Ekta promoted it on her TV shows too. To cash in on the hit music a rock concert was also organised for the music launch.
Because of these rigorous promotional activities Ek Villain managed to get an opening of 65% which is quite huge considering Akshay Kumar's Holiday released in the same month got just a 30% opening.
It was shown on a show that Ekta Kapoor herself was shocked when the film crossed the 100 crores mark as she never expected it to be such a big hit.
Except the music and some scenes where Ritesh Deshmukh managed to create fear in the minds of the audience there was nothing much in the film. The story from the start was predictable.  
Sidharth  Malhotra should really start working on his acting skills as his other two co-students of the year Varun and Alia are way ahead than him.

In a line Indian film industry has started focusing more on show and publicity because of which the films lack in story and content and though they make money they fail to leave any mark on the viewers and are soon forgotten.
Note to Producers - Please make more films like A Wednesday , Sarfarosh , Border or DDLJ.

Review of Aashiqui 2

Release date – 26'th April  2013

One Line which describes the film –

 “When you can stop you don't want to, and when you want to stop, you can't..”

Best  Dialogue – ' Star wahi ban sakta hai, jsiki awaaz sunkar dil kahe 'seeti maar' 

Genre – Romance

Story- Shagufta Rafique 

Music – Mithoon , Jeet Ganguly , Ankit Tiwari

Producer - Bhushan Kumar , Mukesh Bhatt

Krishan Kumar

Direction - Mohit Suri

Cast- Aditya Roy Kapoor , Shraddha Kapoor

Budget- 12 crores

Aashiqui  was one of the highest grossing films of 1990 mainly due to its music and hit songs such as  "Dheere Dheere Se", " Main Duniya Bhula dounga", "Bas Ek Sanam Chahiye", "Nazar ke saamne" and "Tu Meri Zindagi Hai" . 

Aashiqui 2 starts with a big audience cheering for their star, who stumbles to the stage in a drunken stupor and sings ' Sun raha hai na tu ' . The scene reminds us of  Rockstar , but this is where the similarity ends.

Imtiaz Ali gave us an intense story of a simple guy who pays the heavy price of heart break and becomes an international Rockstar . In this film we have a former superstar who has destroyed his career because of his addiction to alcohol. He meets a girl who he thinks has great potential to become a singer and the love story starts. 
The film has some intense scenes but there are so many loopholes in the script that the viewers are left to imagine the story behind the hero's dependence on alcohol , or how he became a superstar , why he can't sing again when he gives excellent training to the budding singer ,why his loving father never cares enough to come to his rescue and didn't the hero ever hear about rehabilitation centers and Alcoholics Anonymous ? 

In any romantic film the feelings are mainly expressed through dialogues and facial expressions. Though in many scenes Aditya Roy Kapoor manages to express his love and agony ,Shraddha Kapoor fails miserably in matching up to him. Her porcelain face has the same traumatized expression even during the happiest moments.
There are no memorable dialogues and the only song which remains in our memory is  'Tum Hi Ho' sung by Arijit Singh . 

In a line, even if some people like the film because Misery loves company , it is not the kind of love story one wants to watch again and again. 

Time Pass .

Rank- 15 (Out of th 23 films I have seen in 2013)