Review of Shamitabh- Not everyone's cup of tea.

Release date - 6'th Feb 2015

One Word which describes the film -Thought-provoking

Best Dialogue- Agar paani whiskey ke bina badh sakta hai to socho whiskey bina pani ke kitna chad sakti hai.'

Genre - Drama / Comedy

Music - Ilaiyaraaja

Producer - Sunil Lulla, R. Balki, 
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, R. K. Damani
Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan
Sunil Manchanda, Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Dhanush

Story & Direction -R. Balki

Cast -Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush, Akshara Haasan

Budget- 40 crores +P&A

You have to give it to the duo R.Balki and Amitabh Bachchan for being the most experimental pair in Bollywood. After making Bachchan romance a girl half his age in  Cheeni Kum(2007), and then making him play the role of a 12 year old in Paa (2009) the director presents Amitabh as a shabby alcoholic who lives in a graveyard and has a grudge against the society.
Dhanush plays the role of a small town guy who wishes to become a super star.
Akshara who makes his Bollywood debut with this film manages to hold her own in front of the two super stars.
There are catchy one liners like, 'Technology ko Mughle Azam pasand nahi aya kya' and 'Paani Needs Whisky,Whisky Ko Zaroorat Nahi  Kisiki' , but the humor gets lost in the slow and predictable story.
In the film there is a line,'Too classy, masses ko pasand nahi ayegi' holds true for the film too as though the film starts in a good speed after an hour it is reduced to just conversations between the three lead stars.  
In a line if you are a big Bachchan fan you will have to watch the film for his flawless acting and his chemistry with Dhanush.
Time-pass. Can be seen in theaters. 

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 Baby

Release date - 23'rd January 2015

One Word which describes the film -Thrilling

Best Dialogue - 'Mil jaate hai thode officers hamen. Thode pagal, thode adiyal, jinke dimag mein sirf desh aur deshbhakti ghoomti rehti hai. Yeh desh ke liye marna nahi chahte, balki jeena chahte hai. Taki akhri saans tak desh ki raksha kar sake.'

Genre - Action/Thriller

Music -M. M. Kreem, Meet Bros Anjjan

Producer - Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Shital Bhatia
Cape of Good Films, Crouching Tiger

Story & Direction -Neeraj Pandey

Cast -Danny Denzongpa, Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubati,Anupam Kher, Taapsee Pannu, Madhurima Tuli, 

• Kay Kay Menon, Sushant Singh

Budget- 60 crores(approximately)

Post the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai a team of special officers is formed whose job is to find and eliminate terrorists who are planning attacks in various cities in India.
With his third film,Neeraj Pandey is on his way to become the most wanted director of Bollywood.
The film has a bunch of talented actors who weave an environment of patriotism, thrill, terror and suspense which makes you forget that you are watching a film.
You feel panic when our heroes are in danger, feel sympathy for the wife who always gets the same answer from her husband that he's in conference so can't talk, feel the helplessness felt by the team leader when he can't save his team members and feel anger when the leader of the jehadis says, 'Hum India ko jante hai. Woh kuch bhi nahi kar sakenge. Wo sirf baatein karte rehte hai.' 
Danny and Akshay Kumar are the lifeline of this film. Both are tailor made for the role. There are scenes where it's shown in a subtle way that under their thick exterior these heroes are also normal humans. They also feel tension, fear and pain but let it all stay under their feeling of patriotism.
Neeraj Pandey has always believed that the content of the film should be paid more importance than it's marketing and promotions. Because of this though his films never manage to break any opening day records they set a new standard in film making and make a permanent place in the minds of the viewers. Baby has managed to earn just 20 crores in 2 days but hopefully with positive word of mouth and good reviews the film will surely cover it's budget and make decent profits for the producers.

In a line as an Indian it's your duty to watch this patriotic film and applaud the film's director Neeraj Pandey's guts and vision.
Mindblowing .Must Watch.

Bollywood Report Card 2014

Top 5 must watch films of 2014 1. #Mardaani 2. #Queen 3. #PK 4. #Haider 5. #MaryKom

Critically Acclaimed films of 2014 (Receiving 3.5-5 stars from all critics) 1. #PK 2. #Queen 3. #Highway 4. #Citylights 5. #Filmistaan

Top 5 blockbusters of 2014
1. #Kick (Box Office collections- 233 crores) 2. #HappyNewYear (Box Office collections -203 crores) 3. #PK (Box Office collections - 198 crores, still running )
4. #BangBang (Box Office collections - 181 crores) 5. #SinghamReturns (Box Office collections -141 crores) 

Surprise Hits of 2014 1. #EkVillain 2. #2States 3. #Queen 4. #RaginiMMS2 5. #Yaariyan



Biggest Disappointments of 2014

1. #KillDil 2. #RevolverRani 3. #HappyEnding 4. #ActionJackson 5. #RajaNatwarlal

Ugly - It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World

Release date - 26'th December 

2014
One Word which describes the film -Dark

Best Dialogue - 

Chaitanya-'Sir,actor log aisa karte hai ki ghar par ek naam aur parde par doosra.'
Inspector Jadhav- Accha, to Amitabh Bachchan ka ghar ka naam kya hai.'

Genre - Suspense/Thriller 

Music -G. V. Prakash Kumar

Producer - DAR Motion Pictures, Phantom Films

Story & Direction -Anurag Kashyap

Cast -Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Girish Kulkarni, Siddhanth Kapoor, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Vipin Sharma, Surveen Chawla

Budget- 5-6 crores (approximately)

The film starts with a depressed and alcoholic woman contemplating ways to end her life. The first thought which comes in our mind is maybe she considers herself ugly. But slowly as the plot unfolds we come to know that the film is about the wicked ways of the world and how darkness resides inside every individual which overcomes all love and relations.

The story is about the people in the life of a woman, her daughter, her husband, her ex-husband, her brother and her friend. The woman's daughter disappears which lead to an array of events which show the selfishness, cruelty and wickedness of the lead characters.

Ronit Roy is perfect as the head of police detection unit. He is ruthless, shows no mercy and trusts no one. 

Rahul Bhat plays the role of a struggling actor. Though this is his first film he has given stiff competition to Ronit Roy in their scenes together.

Tejaswini is waiting for her Bollywood debut since 2000 but sadly her debut film Paanch, also directed by Anurag Kashyap was never released in theaters. She plays the role of a depressed housewife perfectly. 

Surveen Chawla is the eye candy of the film. 

Siddhant Kapoor has a small role and in one scene where he does a crazy dance he looks exactly like his father Shakti Kapoor.

Vineet Kumar plays the role of a casting director who plays an important role in the lives of the lead actors.

Marathi actor Girish Kulkarni is superb as Inspector Jadhav. His body language and expressions are just perfect. There is subtle humor in his scenes. 

With these characters Anurag has written an intriguing story where he takes us on a roller coaster ride through the streets of Mumbai where we go through different emotions and feelings which at times make us doubt the sanctity of various relations we make in our lifetime.

The film has all the features of a typical Kashyap film, lots of violence, abuses, drama, twists along with a strong message.

Ugly has been in news since last year as the Indian Censor Board required a "Smoking is Injurious to Health" sign to be flashed whenever a character in the film is shown smoking but Anurag Kashyap fought this regulation stating, ' It's the Health Ministry that should take the responsibility of curbing use of tobacco and work towards measures to control it and films should not be a medium to advertise non-smoking.'

Finally the film is released along with the statutory warning but Kashyap could not have chosen a worse time for release. The cold waves in the North kept the audience away from theaters and those who went chose to watch last week's much acclaimed release 'PK' 

In a line the film has a dark and disturbing story, full of violence and cuss words and is surely not meant for the romantics or weak-hearted.

Watch at your own risk. Can be seen if you like dark thrillers.

Review of PK

Release date - 19'th December 2014

One Word which describes the film -Heart-warming

Best Dialogue - 'Jo dar gaya wo mandir gaya.'

Genre -Comedy/Drama 

Music -Ajay Atul,Shantanu Moitra ,
Ankit Tiwari

Producer - Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Story, Direction & Editing -Rajkumar Hirani

Cast -Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Dutt ,Sushant Singh Rajput

Budget- 50 crores +P&A 

PK was the most awaited film of 2014. Rajkumar Hirani uses his time tested formula of questioning the current system and providing an alternate solution.

The plot is simple, the characters are down to earth,there is no item song or exotic locations still the director manages to evoke emotions with the tale of a person who is not used to the corrupt ways of our world.

Amir Khan is the soul of PK. He is the wide eyed, big eared alien who manages to steal all attention with his weird dresses and innocent questions. The shooting of PK started in 2012 when a similar film OMG – Oh My God!  was released. Any other actor would not have dared working in a film with an almost similar story. It's Amir's belief in the director and his own acting capabilities that made him do this film.
Anushka Sharma as the young and enthusiastic journalist gives stiff competition to Amir and manages to leave an impact in the mind of the audiences.
Other characters have small roles which provide ample drama and keep us fully entertained.
As expected the film got a good opening day collection of 26 crores. With no competition and good word of mouth the film has the capability of earning 200 crores plus at the box office. 
Other superstars who are busy in just making money and working in forgettable films like Happy New Year, Kick, Happy Ending, Kill Dil, Bang Bang, Action Jackson should learn from Amir the art of choosing films which touch hearts and make a special place there forever. 

 In a line, though the story is simple but it's presentation is such that you will get attached to the characters and wish to have people like that in your life.

Must watch for Amir Khan fans. Paisa vasool. 

Review of Kill Dil - Style without Substance

Release date -14'th November 2014

One Word which describes the film - Musical

Best Dialogue - "Maarna hai to maaro. Ghoor ke mera time waste mat karo." 

Genre - Action/ Romance

Music -Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Producer - Aditya Chopra

Story & Direction -Shaad Ali

Cast -Govinda ,Ranveer Singh ,Ali Zafar ,Parineeti Chopra

Budget- 40 crores (Including P&A)

Director Shaad Ali made an impressive debut with Saathiya (2002) followed by Bunty Aur Babli(2005). In 2007 he totally antagonized the audience with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Everyone was eagerly waiting for his comeback film which had a bunch of talented actors. The promos were quite stylish, the music catchy and the film looked just perfect. The film starts with the bad guy Govinda and his boys humming and dancing to the title song. 

Govinda is the merciless bhaiyaji who can kill for money , can be generous or ruthless depending on his moods. He laughs on jokes, likes singing and dancing and plans his moves like an expert game master.

Ranveer and Ali are the modern 'Jai-Veeru'. They are stylishly attired through out the film, one in black other in white. Huge posters symbolizing their friendship are adorned on the walls of their house. They move around in bikes singing and dancing looking like cool dudes rather than killers. Most of their time is spent in styling their hair and drinking whiskey. 

Parineeti plays the role of a rich girl who instead of joining her father's business decides to help the criminals in rehabilitating themselves. During the whole film she is only playing the part of a rich girl who visits night clubs in skimpy dresses or is lazying in the pool or is just painting the town red in her sports car. The characters are well defined and the film starts in a good way with some action scenes and good dialogues. But after 15 minutes the film loses its speed ,there is no plot and the only action shown is the lead actors putting bullets on their target .

The director has paid so much attention on characterisation and style that he totally forgot that there should be a good story to bind the characters together.After every 10 minutes there is a new song and it looks as if everyone is just waiting to find an excuse to dance. Though the background music is good and the songs are melodious but still a film should have a good screenplay to keep the viewers engrossed till the end.

There were huge expectations from the film and despite being released in 2500 plus screens the film just had a 25% opening (6-7 crores ). It will be a big task for the film to even cross the 30 crore mark .

In a line if you are a very big Govinda / Ranveer fan then also it will be a task for you to watch this 2 hr film in theater.

Avoidable. Watch the promos and endless songs on you tube and save money.