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.

Befikre- Emotion in motion

Release date- 9th December 2016

One Word which describes the film- Raunchy

Best Dialogue-
Dharam-"Palatne nahi wala hai."
Shyra- "Palatne ka wait to 90's mein karte the log. I was just checking out his ass."

Genre- Rom-com

Music- Vishal- Shekhar

Producer- Aditya Chopra

Story/ Screenplay/ Direction- Aditya Chopra

Cast- Ranveer Singh, Vaani Kapoor 

Budget- 70 Crores ( Including P & A) 

Aditya Chopra made his directorial debut in 1995 with Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which till now continues to run in Maratha Mandir, Mumbai. He followed with Mohabbatein (2008) and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008).

Befikre is his most daring and will surely turn out to be the least profitable venture.
Since the first poster of Befikre came out on 9th April, we were in no doubt on what the film was about. Aditya Chopra continued to tantalize us every month with similar posters and thus creating a good buzz among the youth for the film. The trailer was equally 'youth-friendly' with both the stars smooching at every opportunity and roaming around in bare minimums.

The film started with the song 'Labon ka Karobaar' where everyone is daring enough to kiss their loved ones. The story is about Dharam, who comes to Paris to work as a stand-up comedian in his friend's restaurant. Shyra is a carefree girl who works as a tour guide and on weekends helps her parents run their restaurant. They meet at a party and sparks fly.
The whole film is shot in Paris and beautifully captures the charm of the city.

Ranveer Singh is known for his energy and Aditya Chopra said in an interview that he wrote the character with Ranveer in mind. He's funny, he's naughty and throughout the film manages to entertain us.

Vaani Kapoor made her debut through YRF's Shuddh Desi Romance in 2013. She was in a total 'desi' look in the film. How, Aditya Chopra envisioned her as the hot and bold 'Shyra' is beyond imagination. In her washboard abs and firangi accent she looks like a mixture of Katrina Kaif and Nargis Fakhri. Her unconventional looks and brazen character is a little shocking in the start but by the end of the film we get used to her, even loving her chemistry with Dharam as they indulge in a sensuous dance.

Aditya Chopra has made a film, keeping a certain age group in mind, youngsters who are not ready to commit or are afraid of being in a relationship, and they are loving the film. There are several references to DDLJ in the film, showing Aditya's love for his first project. Dharam's character is a lot like "Bittoo" of Band Baja Baraat.
The film has earned almost 50 Crores in a week which is a good figure but considering the names and marketing involved, not very impressive. Dangal is going to release next week and so the film may end around 80-85 Crores.

Music is average and none of the song is melodious enough to be heard on loop.

In a line, there are love stories and then there are stories with lots of love making scenes and Befikre surely falls in the second category.
Time-pass. Can be seen in theaters for Ranveer Singh's energy.

Kahaani2- Durga Raani Singh

Release date- 2nd December 2016

One Word which describes the film- Dramatic

Best Dialogue- "Jo raaz raaz rehne the, wo aaj mujhe phir kholne honge." 

Genre- Thriller

Music- Clinton Cerejo

Producer- Sujoy Ghosh, Jayantilal Gada

Story & Direction- Sujoy Ghosh

Cast- Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Jugal Hansraj

Budget- 30-35 Crore approximately


Kahaani was made on a budget of 8 Crores and it earned almost 70 Crores at the box office, making it one of the super-hit films of 2012.
After 4 years we get another film of the same franchisee but this time the director has failed to recreate the same success story.

Initially, Durga Rani Singh was intended to be a standalone film starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, but later the makers made it as a sequel to Kahaani, starring Vidya Balan.
I think this was the biggest mistake as Kahaani is known for its suspense which kept the audience rooted to their seats till the end. This film was made in an entirely different way with events happening one after another and till interval any person of average IQ could have guessed what was going to happen next. The predictability factor disappointed the audience and most of them came out of the theater saying that though the film is good it's no match to the original "Kahaani".

Vidya Balan is perfect for the role of Durga. Her acting is flawless. The way she expresses the anguish, disappointment, pain and anxiety is so real that she manages to keep us involved in the story till the end.

Arjun Rampal looks fit and smart. As his character supports the main character, his acting is subtle and he has managed to give a decent performance.

Jugal Hansraj makes his comeback as an actor but his acting is average and he doesn't looks very convincing in his role.  

Lighting is one of the most critical aspects of a film. In most of the scenes the lighting is so less that we couldn't appreciate the beauty of the surroundings.

The film was released in 1250 screens and it managed to get an opening of just 4.5 Crores. With YRF'S Befikre occupying almost 60% screens next week, it'll be a task for the film to even make a lifetime collection of 30 Crores.

In a line, though the story is quite predictable, it can be seen for Vidya Balan's excellent acting.
Time-pass

Moh Maya Money~ In greed we trust

Release date- 25th Nov 2016

One Word which describes the film- Intriguing 

Best Dialogue-"Risk Hai To Profit Hai Na Yaar. Maroge Nahin To Swarg Kaise Jaoge?"

Genre- Crime/ Thriller

Music- Tuomas Kantelinen

Producer- Sandeep Narula

Story- Munish Bhardwaj, Mansi Nirmal Jain

Direction- Munish Bhardwaj

Cast- Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Vidushi Mehra, 

Budget- 5 Crores approximately

Moh Maya Money is the story of a real-estate broker Aman Mehra who is fed up of his middle class existence and aspires to become rich by hook or crook. He is overambitious and believes in doing all kind of deals whether in cash or cheque, black or white just to fulfill his greed. His motto in life is, "Ek Baar Bank Mein Paise Aa Gaye To Wapis Nahin Jaate, Adjust Ho Jaate Hain". Ranvir Shorey portrays the role of a Delhite effortlessly.
Neha Dhupia plays the role of Aman's wife. Her character looks simple and satisfied but afterwards we get to see shades of grey.  

The story is shown first from  Aman's perspective and then from his wife's perspective. There are too many twists which keep the viewers engrossed in the story. The climax will surprise you.

Munish Bharadwaj makes his directorial debut with the film. In this current scenario of demonetisation this white collar crime story is not only relevant but also fills us with nostalgia when we see Ranvir Shorey lying down on a bed with bundles of 500 and 1000 spread all around him.

The film was supposed to release on 11 th Nov along with Rock On 2 but because of the demonetization news it was postponed. As it was released along with the much publicized Dear Zindagi, it got very less screens. Many people are not even aware of it because of the less advertising budget.
In a line the film is about the desperate measures you take when your greed lands you knee deep in trouble.

Time pass.