Dil Dhadakne Do- Not Another Master Piece by Zoya

Release date- 5'th June 2015

One Word which describes the film -Scenic 

Best Dialogue - 'Is family ki yahi problem hai, sab upar upar se bat karte hai, asli bat to koyi karta hi nahi hai.

Genre - Comedy/ Drama

Music- Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Producer -Ritesh Sidhwani
Farhan Akhtar

Story- Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar (dialogue), Javed Akhtar (additional dialogue) 

Direction- Zoya Akhtar

Cast- Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose,Zarina Wahab, Vikrant Massey, Ridhima Sud

Budget- 60 Crores approximately 

The film was first announced as a story based on the brother- sister relationship between Zoya and Farhan Akhtar played by Kareena Kapoor and  Ranbir Kapoor respectively.

Over the years not only the cast was changed but from a brother- sister film it became the story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family who plan a cruise to celebrate the parents' 30'th wedding anniversary.

Most of the celebrities and film stars were all praises for the film as they must have identified with this ultra rich family who instead of chocolates and toys offer planes to their kids as bribe.

Initially I was happy to see that the film was 170 minutes long but once it started, within 15 minutes it became very clear that the journey is going to be a very slow one. There are 20 seconds dialogues followed by 10 seconds of silence. Some episodes are totally unnecessary and should have been totally edited from the film.

Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah are perfect in their roles. In some scenes their chemistry is so good that you will feel that they are actually married to each other. Their characters have various shades of grey and like experts they manage to give the perfect expression in every scene.
Anil Kapoor gets to say this epic line which every kid must have heard at least once in his/her life 'Tumne aaj tak kiya kya hai ? Nothing ! You are lucky that I'm your father.' 

Priyanka Chopra has lost too much weight and looks tired. She has an excellent voice but in most of the scenes she has a bad throat and doesn't sound like her usual self.

Ranveer Singh is the life and soul of the otherwise reticent family. He is vibrant, makes the audience laugh and is cute in some scenes. He is paired opposite Anushka Sharma with whom he made his Bollywood debut in 2010 ( Band Baaja Baaraat ) and later was also romantically linked. Though now they are dating other people , they share a great on screen chemistry. As aptly described in a dialogue, ' Mohabbat ki shuruwat mai aisa hi hota hai, zabaan kam bolti hai, ankhen bolti hai, jism bolte hai.'

Anushka Sharma has a strong role and some good dialogues but as she is not part of the family she gets less screen space. First Bombay Velvet flops at the Box office and now this film is off to a bad start, guess the news lips are not that lucky for Anushka.

Farhan Akhtar must have been added in the film as an after thought as least attention is paid to his character. He is shabbily dressed in most scenes, doesn't even bother to shave or comb his hair which was quite disappointing for his fans. Moral he should learn from this film is, even when you are the producer and your sister is the director you shouldn't be over confident.
Javed Akhtar has penned some dialogues which are used in a narrative style. Loved this one, ' Doosre karte hai to use hypocrisy kehte hai aur jab khud wohi kam karte hai to use duniyadaari kehte hai.'

The main problem of the film is the presence of too many characters. So many parallel stories are running in the film that many scenes just add to the existing confusion. Many characters are introduced but near the end they just fade away and the focus abruptly shifts to the main members of the family.
The music is average and none of the song stays with us once the movie ends. Guess you really need a Honey Singh or Arijit Singh to have a chart buster song. 
The film has nothing to offer to the masses and so it will be a difficult task for the film to  reach the 100 Crore mark.   

In a line, the film is 170 min long, slow at times, will make you sleep in some scenes but overall it's a classy film made by a woman for other women.

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

Review of Vishwaroopam

Release date - 1'st Feb  2013

One Line which describes the film-
(a line from the film's song) – "Shehron main hinsa ko dekh jangal bhi hairan hai " 


Best  Dialogue –

"Hum Allah ke liye khoon bahate hain aur yeh petrol ke liye."

Genre - Action /Thriller 


Story - Kamal Haasan , Atul Tiwari

Music – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Producer -  Chandra Haasan , Kamal Haasan

Direction - Kamal Haasan 

Cast - Kamal Haasan , Pooja Kumar , Andrea Jeremiah , Rahul Bose , Jaideep Ahlawat

Budget – 100 crores

Kamal Hassan , a spy disguises himself as a jihadi fighting the NATO forces in a Afghanistan and later as a Kathak dance teacher . He has to stop Afghani Al-Qaeda jihadi Omar (Rahul Bose) and Salim (Jaideep Ahlawat , earlier appeared as Shahid Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur ) who plan to attack New York  with a “Cesium-bomb”. 

The film starts at a slow speed. After 40 minutes comes a fast action sequence which makes us sit upright in our seats .

There are some points which make the film an intelligent work of art and a must watch

1. We are shown how rigid the jihadis are in their beliefs ,they don't mind punishing their young boys if they find them listening to music , how they want their women to be covered from head to toe .

2.  The Afghanistan set made in Chennai  with the mud houses , caves ,dusty streets was just perfect .  

 Even the minutest details seemed real ,be it the houses or the costumes or the mannerisms of women or even the weapons and the way they were used .

3. The scenes portraying the cruelty that the Taliban were doing in the name of Islam (like killing and hanging people), the scene where a young boy is enjoying on a swing just before he becomes a suicide bomber touch your heart.

4. We are shown how every family member of the jihadi are dragged into terrorism even if they want to choose a different life style . Omar's innocent 5 year old son says that he wants to become a doctor but in  the next scene we find Omar blind folding him and questioning him about different guns and bullets.

Rahul Bose says in a scene " Bhai london main engineer ban na chahta hai aur engineer jihadi ban rahe hai Afghanistan main" 

5. There are scenes where we find Kamal Hassan helpless and in pain as  he knows that he can't protect the innocent people making his character very real ,unlike THE other super human spys in Agent Vinod and Ek Tha Tiger .

In a line despite it's slow speed and a non happening climax Vishwaroopam has some  spell binding moments . 

Good One time watch .

Rank-  2  (Out of the 10 films I have seen in 2013 )