Sarkar 3~ Triple dose of disappointment

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Yami Gautam, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Best Dialogue: "Har acchai ki koi nirdharit keemat hoti hai, who chahe paisa ho, gyan ho, Ya phir dard.. aur dard ki keemat chukani padta hai."

In 2005, Ram Gopal Varma gave us Sarkar where we got an inside look of the family of a feared man, Subhash Nagre who solved everyone’s problems while sipping tea. The film ended with his younger son, Shankar taking on his seat.

In 2008, Ramu made Sarkar Raaj where Sarkar's enemies kill Shankar and Sarkar is forced to return to action and take revenge from them. In the end he’s seen sipping tea with Shankar’s wife Anita hinting that maybe she can become his heir.

When Sarkar 3 was announced we were quite disappointed to know that Aishwarya won't be a part of it. Maybe the film’s budget didn't permit it or maybe the Bachchan bahu was busy shooting for her first 100 Crore film, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

Sarkar 3 had the tagline that Sarkar is back and he’s angrier than ever. But throughout the film not even once we saw his anger or got to hear some dialogue which could make us whistle or clap for him.

Apart from Amitabh Bachchan all other characters are so ordinary that they hardly stand out.

Amid Sadh plays the role of the grandson who may become Sarkar's heir but he shows no energy and says lines like “Sab doodh ke jale hai and chaach ko phoonk ke peete hai” or “ye khel unhone shuru kia hai, khatam mai karunga”. Couldn't the dialogue writer have been a bit more original?

Manoj Bajpai’s entry scene was good but after sometime even his character lost the edge.

Yami Gautam’s character has her own vendetta against Sarkar, for he had her father killed. But throughout the film she’s only shown meeting Amit Sadh for coffee dates and just talking and talking. In most of the scenes she looks like a drug addict.

Jackie Shroff’s character is written on the lines of Vijay Mallya. When he talks to his aides on phone there is always his scantily clad girlfriend in the background who is sometimes feeding the dolphins or just showing off her sun tanned body. Jackie just has to stare at her and say lame dialogues like, “Jis jis ko maine ring di darling, wo sab mar gayi”.

Without any powerful antagonist, Sarkar has nothing left to do and we have to watch a poor version of the same story we saw 12 years back.

To add to our woes there is loud background music blaring in the background along with the Govinda Govinda & Saam daam dand bhed chants.

The film was released in approximately 1500 screens and because of bad reviews and poor word of mouth earned around 7 crores over the weekend. The film will finish around 12 Crores which is even less than what Sarkar made in 2005.

In a line, Sarkar 3 has proved to be the final nail in the coffin of Ram Gopal Verma's creativity and after this big stars like Mr Bachchan will surely stay away from working in his films.
Highly avoidable.

Badrinath ki Dulhaniya~ The formula of a hit film, one dose of Feminism mixed with one dose of women empowerment and a pinch of random fun and humour

Release date - 10th March 2017

One Word which describes the film- 

Over-the- top

Best Dialogue - 'Are ye tedha munh karke kyo smile kar rahe ho, Shahrukh Khan ho kya?'

Genre - Romance / Comedy

Music- Amaal Malik, Tanishk Bagchi

Producer - Karan Johar

Story & Direction -Shashank Khaitan

Cast- Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt

Budget- 50 crores (approximately)

Gone are the times when you needed a very innovative or unique story to make a hit film. In 2016, most of the films which performed well at the box office had simple plots, had a female protagonist or dealt with women empowerment.

Badrinath ki Dulhania is a sequel to Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya(2014), which was a moderate hit.

Badrinath looks at Vaidehi and falls in love with her. His only target in life is to marry her.

Vaidehi is a career oriented woman who wants to be the son her parents never had. 

The story is a typical masala film which you must have seen 100 times and seasoned viewers will easily predict what is going to happen next.

Like Humpty Sharma there are more moments of friendship and comfort between the lead pair than any sizzling chemistry.

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt have given excellent performances and have some how tried to make the slow film interesting with their comic timing and intense expressions.

The dialogues are not what you will remember after the film, it's the silent exchanges between the lead pair who have become the most bankable stars of current times.

The film has many supporting characters who have done justice to their small roles.

The film was released in 2700 screens and has managed to earn around 12 Crores on Friday. This figure is greater than the 2016 Varun Dhawan & John Abraham starrer, Dishoom which was a much bigger film with a higher budget and marketing expenses.

In a line, though the film is not about some epic romance or great love, the good performances manage to keep the viewers entertained.

Good one time watch. Time-pass.

Commando 2~ Double Trouble!

Release date- 3rd March 2017

One Word which describes the film - Directionless

Best Dialogue - "Itni ghatiya team chuni hai to irade to nek ho nahi sakte."

Genre - Action

Music- Mannan Shah

Producer-Vipul Shah

Story- Ritesh Shah

Direction- Deven Bhojani

Cast - Vidyut Jamwal, Adah Sharma, Freddy Daruwala, Esha Gupta, Adil Hussain

Budget- 25-30 Crores approximately

The film starts with Vidyut Jamwal making his entry into a deserted building where he kills 25-30 people single handedly, jumps through floors, slides through narrow openings, breaks bones and then asks his junior to shoot him twice, one just under the liver and the other on his right leg, so that he can justify the encounter he is about to do.

After this came more such scenes where the hero is jumping or sliding under cars or sliding down walls, like a lizard. 

In Commando( 2013), Vidyut Jamwal made his presence felt because of his unique action skills but here his action stunts without a proper story look so unintentionally funny that we can't decide what the director is trying to show.

The film even has a prologue about Modi's demonetisation drive and ends with a rosy picture of a scenario where the black money is brought to India as if the director wanted to be in the Prime minister's good books.

To add to an already weak screenplay and story there was this "Commando Commando" background music along with every action stunt which was so irritating that it made several people from the audience leave the theatre much before interval.

Vidyut Jamwal is the only saving grace of this film. He looks fit but how seriously can you take a hero who says dialogues like, "Single single mat lo, chauka maaro. Come on, get me excited", while interrogating a criminal.

Adah Sharma as Hyderabadi-based Bhawna Reddy looks good at the start but soon her actions and accent start getting repetitive and boring. She moves around in small dresses and 4 inches heels and then says that she comes from a very poor place where they had to pay bribe even for water.

Freddy Daruwala has nothing much to do and maintains a non interested look through-out the film.

Esha Gupta with her skin tight dresses and painted lips looks like a mannequin. She can't act and I wonder till when will she keep receiving roles because of her resemblance to Angelina Jolie.

Shefali Shah is an integral part of all her husband's, Vipul Shah's films. She plays the role of a home minister but is always dressed like a rich socialite, even flashing big solitaires in all her scenes.

The film was released in 2200 screens and got a poor opening. With bad reviews and poor word of mouth it just has 7 days to recover it's budget which looks like a very difficult task.

In a line, this sequel is a big disappointment and should be seen only if you are a big fan of Vidyut Jamwal.

Avoidable.

Jolly LLB 2- Commercialisation of a tried and tested idea

Release date- 10th February 2017

One Word which describes the film-  Stereotypical

Best Dialogues -

Akshay Kumar- "Beta, jo vakil paise wapis kar de naa wo vakil nahi hota."

Sourabh Shukla- "Bhare court ke andar thappad maar diya inko, ab kya RDX laga dega inke neeche."

Annu Kapoor- "Pepsi aur Pramod apna formula batate nahi."

Genre - Court Room Drama

Music- Manj Music, Meet Bros

Producer- Fox Star Studios

Story & Direction- Subhash Kapoor

Cast - Akshay Kumar, Sourabh Shukla, Annu Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Kumud Mishra

Budget- 30 Crores excluding Akshay Kumar's remuneration

Jolly LLB was a sleeper hit of 2013 where Arshad Warsi played the titular role of Jolly. The satirical court room drama was loved by all and it also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

In 2016 when the sequel of Jolly LLB was announced, Arshad Warsi was asked why he was not doing the film. Arshad said that Fox Star Studios needed a bigger star, so they chose Akshay.

“It makes it easier for marketing and to have a hit. With me, you have to make a good film, so that is the problem. You can make money with me only if it’s a very good film. If you have a bigger star, then even if the film is not that good, you still manage to cover the money so risk factor from the producer’s point of view is less,” he added.

Guess Arshad Warsi knew what the sequel would be like even before the film was made. The film follows the same story line of its predecessor where a corrupt advocate becomes a responsible person when some events shake his soul. The film uses all the gimmicks to make it into a blockbuster even adding a Holi song and some dialogues about soldiers fighting at the border to awake the feeling of patriotism inside you.

The first-half is slow where we see different aspects of  Jolly’s life and his equations with his father, employer and wife. The story tries to take a serious turn but again it's followed by some light events as if the director can't decide the direction where he wants his film to go.

Post interval the film is shot mostly in the court like the other two hit films of 2016 Rustom and Pink.

We have some good scenes between the judge and the two advocates. But soon we get to see a scene where the lawyer calls the judge a 'Tuglaq' and then sits on a dharna, which is followed by the judge himself sitting on a dharna, when the others are busy sleeping in the court. This scene was so ridiculous that we wondered what kind of satire was this.

Akshay Kumar is more believable in the comedy scenes than in the courtroom scenes where he's trying to question the witnesses.

Huma Qureshi just sleep walks throughout the film and afterwards you wouldn't remember even one scene where she has left her mark.

Saurabh Shukla as the judge who recently had a by-pass surgery is the best thing about the film. He is an Alia Bhatt fan even saying that 'Alia is Mahesh Bhatt's best contribution to Bollywood after Saaransh. His dialogues are witty, often adding pace to a slow scene.

Annu Kapoor as the lawyer of the corrupt cop, Kumud Mishra is good and gets to say powerful dialogues. Sometimes his arguments are silly but guess that must happen too in real court cases.

In between the commercial film there are few scenes which touch your heart like when a victim confronts the errant Jolly in front of his wife and father, or when Jolly’s mentor comes to his rescue, or when Jolly sells his cabin just to get some evidence but they are so few that they stop the film from becoming a masterpiece.

The film was released in 3600 screens, thus becoming Akshay's biggest release till date and managed to earn 13 Crores on Friday.

The critics have given it 3.5 to 4 stars even when the film is just average proving that if you have good terms with the star then  being politically correct is more important than being right.

In a line, though the film tells you now and then that "Muskuraiye, Aap Lucknow mein hain," there are very few scenes which will actually warm your heart or make you clap for the protagonist.

Time pass

Raees~ Once upon a time in Gujarat

Release date-  25th January 2017 

One Word which describes the film- Mediocre

Best Dialogues- 

SRK- 'Mai Dharm ki Rajneeti nahi karta' 

Nawazuddin- 'Bacche ka baap Bana hai, Gujarat ka nahi.' 

Mhd Zeeshan- 'Neeyat bandh ke khada hai, ab sajda kar ke hi manega.'

Genre- Crime/ Thriller

Music- Ram Sampath

Producer- Gauri Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidwani

Story- Rahul Dholakia, Haritha Mehta, Ashish Vashi, Neeraj Shukla

Direction-Rahul Dholakia

Cast- Shahrukh Khan, Mahira Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mhd Zeeshan, Atul Kulkarni

Budget- 75 Crores approximately excluding Shahrukh Khan's remuneration

Once upon a time in Gujarat, there lived a man called Abdul Latif who began his career as a gambler-turned-bootlegger, and later made a thriving career in organised crime.

In 1986 when he was in prison, Latif contested from five municipal seats and won all of them. After few years he was booked as a terrorist under the TADA Act and on November 29, 1997, he died in an encounter.

Rahul Dholakia along with three others superficially took these pointers from Abdul Latif's story, copied the one liner style from Once upon a time in Mumbai, created a hate chemistry between Shahrukh and Nawazuddin because obviously there was not enough love between Shahrukh and Mahira and as a last thought added a Sunny Leone item number too.

So we got a film which just after the extended weekend was over, started losing viewers.

Shahrukh Khan plays the role of a bootlegger turned lover, turned husband, turned murderer, turned father, turned social worker, turned politician, turned terrorist by mistake, turned revenge seeker and in between also trying to be like Amitabh Bachchan by fighting for the Mill Mazdoors, that you wonder why other talented actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub, Atul Kulkarni, Narendra Jha, Jaideep Alahawat etc were even in the film.

Even after Shahrukh Khan has earned a fortune, he single handedly goes and beats the leader of the opposition because he had organised a rally which was bad for his 'dhanda'. (Sigh!)

Mahira Khan has been giving interviews about how she's missing being a part of the film's promotions.

Till interval she just had 2-3 scenes and we didn't even know what her character was called.

But then, Raees was not about the hero's love for her, it was only about his obsession for his 'hashtag' 'dhanda'

"Jo dhande ke liye sahi woh sahi jo dhande ke liye galat woh galat, isse zyada kabhi socha nahi."

In the promos, we were shown how Nawazuddin Siddiqui tries to make it difficult for Raees to conduct his 'dhanda' smoothly but in the film we see him just saying powerful dialogues and Raees managing to escape the police just by smuggling his liquor bottles in Bullock carts instead of trucks or by using ferries. If only smuggling was that easy everyone would have become a bootlegger!!

In the second half there is also this conversation between them

Nawaz- "Aaj kal din ache chal rahe hai tere"

SRK- "Din aur raat logon ke hote honge, sheron ka zamana hota hai."

We wonder if suddenly Nawazuddin has joined SRK's fanclub.

The story had so many loopholes that if Shahrukh Khan wasn't in it, it wouldn't even have managed to recover it's production cost.

The songs are very average and they just keep popping up in the film without any context.

Shahrukh Khan, who in the starting of his career didn't mind playing totally negative characters like in 'Darr' or 'Anjaam' has tried to make the gangster look so good that neither we could love him enough nor we could hate him, so we have no other option but to forget him.

For all those Shahrukh fans who keep defending his films without having a logical answer, I would like to ask them that if after 2 years you are asked to choose between Chak De India and Raees, which one will you watch?

In a line, Raees is another attempt by SRK to give a masala blockbuster which will be added to the list of his other non-brainer films like Chennai Express, Happy New Year, Dilwale etc.

Time-pass.

Can Dangal get India the much-desired Oscar award?

Release date- 23rd December 2016

One Word which describes the film- Motivational

Best Dialogue- "Agar silver jeeti toh aaj nahi toh kal log tanne bhool javenge. Gold jeeti to misaal ban javegi , aur misaalein di jaati hai beta, bhooli nahi jaati."

Genre- Biographical Sports Drama

Music- Pritam

Producer- Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Siddhart Roy Kapoor

Story & Direction- Nitesh Tiwari

Cast- Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Aparshakti Khurrana, Zaira Wasim, Vivan Bhatena

Budget- 80 Crores approximately (excluding Aamir Khan's remuneration)


India has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1957. Out of the 49 films submitted over the years only 3 have been able to make it to the nominated list. Mother India(1957) directed by Mehboob Khan, Salaam Bombay(1988), directed by Mira Nair and Lagaan(2001), directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. Neither of the three managed to win the Oscar.

Dangal is a true story based on the life of Mahavir Singh and his two daughters, Geeta and Babita Phogat. The film traces the inspirational journey of a father who trains his daughters to become world class wrestlers.

Ever since Amir Khan was seen in his 98 kg avtar of an old man with greying hair there has been too much buzz for the film. In today's time when a film is completed in a period of 6-7 months, Amir Khan took 6 months just to gain 25 kgs.
During the time he was gaining weight he was also undergoing training from Kripa Shankar Patel, who is one of India's national coaches for wrestling.

In a You Tube Video Amir Khan said,"Putting on the weight was fun as I could eat and drink whatever I wanted. I had a ball, I have to say but it was uncomfortable. My wrestling training was affected because I was carrying so much weight and I couldn't move fast. You know, your breathing changes when you put on weight. Your whole body language changes, the way you walk, the way you sit, the way you try to stand up".

In October, the film's first trailer was released. In the 3 minutes trailer we got to see so many emotions, like a father's wish to have a son who could fulfill his dream of winning gold for India and how after an incident he realizes that a gold medal can be won even by a girl.
"Mai hamesha yo soch ke rota raya ki chhora hota to desh ke liye kushti mai gold lata, yo baat meri samajh mai nahi ayi ki gold to gold hota hai, chhora lave ya chhori."
After a month, Aamir Khan released a "fat to fit" video where it was shown how he lost weight to shoot the part of a younger Mahavir, who was a national wrestling champion and dreams of winning a gold medal for India at the Olympics.
From the starting, Amir Khan marketed Dangal as a film focusing on Women Empowerment. The first poster of the film had him surrounded by his daughters with the tag line, "mahri chhoriya chhoro se kam hai ke".
All the supporting characters of Dangal were selected after a round of auditions. 
Amir's mother who had seen various TV serials of Sakshi Tanvar suggested her name for the role of Mahavir's wife.
Dangal's music is in keeping with the film's theme. The title song sung by Daler Mehendi is very energetic and inspirational. Recently we also saw Amir Khan's version of 'Dhaakad' where he was dancing to the hit number.
Amir Khan has been creating new records since he acted in 3 Idiots in 2009. His last film PK, is the highest grosser of Bollywood, earning more than 700 Crores worldwide.
Dangal is being released in around 4300 screens in India and 1000 screens abroad.
Amir's films never need any reviews because of his image of a perfectionist. Every one who has seen the film has loved it, so the only questions which are left unanswered are
1. Will Dangal break PK's earning record?
2. Will it manage to get India the much-desired Oscar?

Wajah Tum Ho~ 50 Shades of Boredom

Release date- 16th December 2016

One Word which describes the film- Boring

Lamest Dialogue- "Qatil koi aur hi hai. Yeh pata lagane mein hi toh is vardi ki shaan hai, varna vardiyan toh kiraye pe bhi milti hai."

Genre- Crime Thriller 

Music- Mithoon, Meet Bros

Producer- Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar

Story- Sameer Arora

Direction- Vishal Pandya

Cast- Sharman Joshi, Sana Khan,Gurmeet Chaudhary, Rajneesh Duggal, Prarthana Behere, Himanshoo Malhotra

Budget- 15-20 Crores approximately

Wajah Tum Ho was advertised as a thriller from the makers of Hate Story 2 & 3. However, the film failed to generate the same kind of excitement as the director's earlier two films.

The film is about a person who hacks a TV channel and streams a murder on it. The idea was quite new but the way it was executed clearly told us that the director was as clueless about hacking as any of us.

The erotic thriller genre was reinvented in 2004 when Anurag Basu gave us Murder which also popularized Emran Hashmi as the serial kisser of Bollywood. Since then the idea has been exploited a lot by film makers but very few have been able to hit the bull's eye.

The film starts with a murder followed by an  investigation scene between a cop and the TV channel owner. Before we can blink our eyes, we are taken to some exotic location where Sana Khan is being romanced (rather smooched)  by one hero, on the recreated version of Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, sung by Arijit Singh.

Some scenes later we get to see Zarine Khan doing a pole dance/ slithering on the recreated version of  'Maahi Ve', looking extremely fat, making us think of the gorgeous Malaika Arora in the original song from Kaante.

As if this much torture was not enough next we see Sherlyn Chopra too, who is trying to make her presence felt in Bollywood since the last 11 years. She tries to seduce one of the heroes in the swimming pool with Armaan Malik singing the recreated version of 'Aise na mujhe tum dekho' from Darling Darling(1977).

Sana Khan who has been doing small roles since 2005, gets her first protagonist role and she has totally sabotaged any chance of getting another film again. In most of the scenes she kept shouting in loud voice as if she was still in the Big Boss's house. There was no chemistry in the kissing scenes which she must have readily agreed to do because of the script's demand. Her dialogue delivery was bad and in one scene she also says, "I likes" which sounded unintentionally funny.

Rajneesh Duggal had a promising debut in 2008 with Vikram Bhatt's, 1920, but since then he has given only flops. In this film also his character does nothing except saying some lame dialogues and hitting on girls. He stays expressionless throughout the film.   

Gurmeet Chaudhary was added to encash on his TV popularity. He gets to romance Sana Khan on various occasions but the two have no chemistry and so they fail to generate any interest.

Sharman Joshi as ACP Kabir is the only saving grace of the film. He tries to put some sense in the film with his acting but his character is made to say lame lines like 
"Himmat tab mat dikhao jab aasaan ho" or "Revenge, you have many faces". Most of the time he's either talking to himself or just happens to solve the crime by chance. His subordinate, Asst Inspector Gaitonde is always smiling as if he gets some secret pleasure in beating criminals.

While watching the film one feels as if the director made it in utter laziness. There are 5-6 characters and by the end each of them is somehow linked to the murders. The film keeps oscillating between the murders and the erotic songs  which makes us wonder why the film was made in the first place.

In a scene Sana Khan asks a lady, "Are you really going to sleep with this rapist?" to which she answers ,"Will you pay my bills?".
Guess the director too thought that making this film was an easy way to mint money but sometimes even the best laid plans go askew.

The film was released in 2000 screens and because of bad reviews and poor word of mouth it collected around 8 Crores which was even lesser than the first day collection of Hate Story 3.

In a line, the only purpose of making this was to encash on the success of last year's mega hit Hate Story 3, but the audience was wise enough to ignore this booty trap.

Highly Avoidable.