Archives for September 2019

Hindi Film Review

Saaho

By: Shaheen Raaj

“Saaho is a sheer waste of time money & energy”

Banner: UV Creations & T-Series

Producers:  Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati & Bhushan Kumar 

Director: SujeethStar Cast: Prabhas,  Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Chunky Panday, Vennela Kishore, Murali Sharmsa, Arun Vijay, Prakash Belwadi, Evelyn Sharma Supreeth, Lal, Mndira Bedi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Tinnu Anand, Sasha Chettri, Girish Garladinne, Damini Chopra, Kumar Raja Venati, Naveen Varma Ganapathiraju, Aaditya Aaditya Srivasav, Sivakrishna & Jacqueline Fernandez 

Music: Tanishk Bagchi, Guru Radhawa, Badshaah, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy & Ghibran

Sometimes, one film is enough to turn an actor into a nationwide star. Baahubali – The Beginning was one such film. It made Prabhas from a regional star to a pan-India sensation & its sequel Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion cemented his position as a superstar. Almost 2 ½ years later, this macho actor is now back with Saaho. While Baahubali was a period drama, Saaho is a modern-day actioner with a bit of a futuristic setup. The hype is tremendous from East to West, North to South.

So the scripted scenario of Saaho reveals the story of a mysterious man on a mission. The foreign city of Waaji is ruled by gangsters & criminals & the biggest of them is Roy (Jackie Shroff). He cleverly manages to get the approval of an Indian minister, Ramaswamy (Tanikella Bharani) for a hydro project in India. He then reaches Mumbai & this is where he’s killed in a road accident. His son Vishwank (Arun Vijay) then takes over, which angers Devraj (Chunky Panday) as he wants to sit on Roy’s throne. Meanwhile the Mumbai crime branch is investigating the death of Roy & other related crimes. The case is handed over to Ashok Chakravarthy (Prabhas), a macho & extremely intelligent officer. He insists that Amritha Nair (Shraddha Kapoor) is also made a part of his team after he gets smitten by her photograph. While scanning the CCTV footage, they come across a mysterious person (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who they believe is a suspect. In the absence of evidence though, he can’t be arrested. Ashok however manages to speak to him & finds out that he’s hunting for a black box which can be used to access the wealth left by Roy in Waaji. Not just this chap but even Vishwank is trying to find the black box, which is hidden in Mumbai. He sends his associate Kalki (Mandira Bedi) who for some reason secures the box but instead of taking it to Waaji, she deposits it in a bank. When the mysterious person comes to get it, the cops who are already on his trial to arrest him. However, the cops get a shock of their lives at this point when they realize they have a mole in their team. The mole runs away with the black box & this baffles not just the police force but also the gangsters of Waaji.

Director Sujeeth’s story is strictly okay but it could have been made for an exciting actioner if the screenplay & direction were upto the mark. Sujeeth’s screenplay however spoils the show. Till the 1^st ever half, it is captivating but then the screenplay is all over the place in the post-interval portions. There are so many villains & moreover, there are so many people double-crossing each other that it gets confusing for viewers to remember the twists. Abbas Dalal & Hussain Dalal’s dialogues are simple but a few one-liners are powerful.

Director Sujeeth’s direction is quite weak & it is one of the big reasons why this film fails. A film like Saaho, mounted on such a huge scale, required the execution by an expert & experienced filmmaker. Sujeeth sadly fails to do the justice. The plot is weak but still, the film could have been saved with the execution. Sujeeth fails to do so overall. On the positive side, a few scenes are handled very well. These are mainly in the 1^st ever half like the entry scenes of Vishwank & Ashok, Devraj threatening his father Prithviraj & of course, the interval point. In the 2^nd half, he does very well in a brief part of the climax where 3 scenes are running parallel, one of Ashok, one of Amrutha & one of Kalki. If he had wisely directed the rest of the film, Saaho would have been on another level.

Saaho has an average beginning. Too much information is laid out & it takes a while to process it all. The film gets a bit better with Ashok’s entry. The investigation carried out by Ashok & his team is quite engaging. Also, the politics played out in Waaji among the warring factions makes for a nice watch. The best is however reserved for the pre-interval. The sequence where Kalki’s car gets attacked is good. The intermission point comes as a jolt. A part of it is predictable but there are too many twists here & hence, it works since viewers won’t be able to guess all the unexpected developments. Post-interval, one expects the film to go on another level but sadly the opposite happens. There is too much chaos, visually & otherwise too & the film ceases to make sense. Yes, the action scenes are spectacular but after a point, the audiences get tired of the overdose. There are more twists in the climax but this time, the viewers don’t get very impressed.

Music is also very average. “Psycho Saiyaan”(changed to “Kaiko Saiyaan”) is the best song of the lot & well shot & choreographed. “Enni Soni” & “Baby Won’t You Tell Me”are forced in the narrative. “Bad Boy”is visually quite stunning. Ghibran’s background score is a bit loud. In a few places, it overpowers the dialogues. Raju Sundaram & Vaibhavi Merchant’s choreography is 1^st rate.

Madhie’s cinematography is captivating. A few scenes are captured upside down & make for a great watch. The lensman has also captured Mumbai’s birds-eye view beautifully. Kenny Bates, Peng Zhang, Bob Brown, Stefan Richter, Dhilip Shubbarayan, Ram Lakshman, Stunt Silva, Parvez Shaikh & Stunt Jashwa’s action is excellent when seen individually. But in the film, a few of them seem needless. A few scenes that work well are Mumbai traffic scuffle (by Stunt Silva), Prabhas’ entry (by Peng Zhang) & chase sequence in pre-climax (by Kenny Bates).

Sabu Cyril’s production design is ambitious & larger than life, especially the Waaji city portions. But it doesn’t seem authentic. R C Kamalakannan’s VFX could have helped in making it look real but it fails at places. Thota Vijay Shankar & Leepakshi Ellawadi’s costumes are appealing, especially the ones worn by Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor & Jacqueline Fernandez in the songs. A Sreekar Prasad’s editing adds to the chaos & could have been simpler.

Performances wise, Prabhas puts up a great show. As per his character, he performs well & would be loved by the masses. His dialogue delivery in Hindi however is a bit weak. Moreover, his character sketch is also a bit flawed, throughout the film, his character is always winning & ahead of his enemies too. Initially, it works but then it becomes unconvincing. Shraddha Kapoor is quite lovely & suits the part of the no-nonsense officer very well. She is great in action scenes. Jackie Shroff makes a huge impact in his cameo. Neil Nitin Mukesh is dependable & looks quite dashing. Chunky Panday steps into the villain zone once again after Begum Jaan & is appropriate. Arun Vijay oozes fear very well & is apt for the part. Murali Sharma (David) has a crucial part & is decent. Mandira Bedi gives a memorable performance. Tinnu Anand doesn’t mouth a single dialogue & yet delivers a fine performance. Mahesh Manjrekar as Prince, Prakash Belawadi as Shinde & Goswamy as Venella Kishore are okay. Evelyn Sharma as Aisha suits her part but her character doesn’t have much to do. Jacqueline Fernandez is sizzling in the special song.

Tail Piece: On the whole, Saaho suffers from a lackadaisical script & a vacuous screenplay.

At the box-office, it is bound to have a huge start & a good extended weekend due to the tremendous hype & the fan following of the lead cast but will face obstacles post the weekend.

Vartha Bharati

Alirajpur (MP), Sep 4: A 19-year-old tribal woman was allegedly beaten up and paraded half-naked by the members of her community for being in love with a man from another tribe in Madhya Pradesh Alirajpur district.

A video of the incident, which took place on Saturday, surfaced on social media on Tuesday. However, the police have not registered any case yet.

The video showed the woman being made to walk down a village road and beaten with sticks while she screamed and begged for mercy.

Passers-by were seen ignoring her ordeal and moving on.

Jobat Sub Divisional Officer of Police R C Bhakar said the police started an investigation after the video came out.

The incident took place at Temachi village, but nobody had filed any complaint so far, the police officer said.

The victim and her father were not in the village so their statements could not be recorded, he said.

Details of the incident could be ascertained only after recording their statements, Bhakar added.

Her other family members, who too were out of the village, were being contacted, he said.

Another police officer said the woman belongs to the Bhilala community and she was reportedly in love with a man from the Bheel community.

This angered her family and community members, who sought to ‘punish’ her by parading and thrashing her, he said.

Vartha Bharati

New Delhi: A woman bravely thwarted a robbery bid in outer Delhi’s Nangloi area by grabbing hold of a man on a two-wheeler as he attempted to flee after snatching her gold chain and forcing him off the vehicle, leading to his arrest, police said on Tuesday.

The incident, which was recorded by a CCTV camera, happened on Friday and the clip was widely circulated on social media, they said.

In the footage, the woman and her daughter can been seen crossing a road when two bike-borne men stopped in front of her and the pillion rider pulled at her chain. Showing presence of mind, the mother-daughter duo managed to catch hold of the man and yank him off the motorcycle.

As he tried to free himself from the clutches of the women, passers-by nabbed the chain-snatcher and started beating him up as his accomplice fled, leaving the motorcycle behind.

According to the police, they rushed to the spot on being informed about the incident and arrested the accused while his associate was also nabbed later.

“The 35-year-old complainant, a resident of Amar Colony, Nangloi, stated that those two men, riding a bike, snatched her gold chain when she was passing through service road near Rajendra Park, Nangloi along with her daughter,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Seju Kuruvilla said.

The accused have been identified as Abdul Shamshad (32), a resident of Palam Colony and Vikas Jain (38), a resident of Kirari, a senior police officer said.

Three bikes, two gold chains and two mobile phones were seized from them, officials said.

Vartha Bharati

The second de-orbiting maneuver of Chandrayaan -2 spacecraft was successfully carried out early Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said, inching towards achieving a historic soft-landing on the lunar surface.

“With this manoeuvre the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence it descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved,” ISRO said in a statement.

The nine-second de-orbiting or retro-orbiting manoeuvre was executed at 3.42 am using the onboard propulsion system, the space agency said. 

On Tuesday, the first de-orbiting manoeuvre for the spacecraft was carried out, a day after lander ‘Vikram’ was separated from the orbiter.

While Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft continued to orbit the moon at a perigee of 96 km and apogee of 125 km, the Vikram Lander is at an orbit of 35 km perigee and 101 km apogee.

“Both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy,” the space agency said.

It further said that moon lander Vikram is scheduled for a powered-descent between 1 am and 2 am on September 7, followed by touch down of Lander between 1.30 am and 2.30 am.

ISRO Chairman K Sivan has said the proposed soft-landing on the Moon is going to be a “terrifying” moment as the ISRO has not done it before, whereas Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was successfully carried out during the Chandrayaan-1 mission. 

Following the landing, the rover ‘Pragyan’ will roll out from ‘Vikram’ between 5:30-6:30 am on September 7, and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days.

The mission life of the lander is also one lunar day, while the orbiter will continue its mission for a year. 

India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV MkIII-M1 had successfully launched the 3,840-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into the earth’s orbit on July 22.

Chandrayaan-2 satellite had began its journey towards the moon leaving the earth’s orbit in the dark hours on August 14, after a crucial maneuver called Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) that was carried out by ISRO to place the spacecraft on “Lunar Transfer Trajectory”. 

In a major milestone for India’s second Moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft had successfully entered the lunar orbit on August 20 by performing Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver. 

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru, the space agency has said. 

The orbiter carries eight scientific payloads for mapping the lunar surface and study the exosphere (outer atmosphere) of the Moon while the lander carries three scientific payloads to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments.

The rover carries two payloads to enhance the understanding of the lunar surface. India’s second lunar expedition would shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon, its South Polar region.

According to ISRO, the mission objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

On the science front, this mission aims to further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon, the space agency had said.

On successful completion, it will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon.

BJP LEADER SWAMI CHINMAYANAND NOT FOUND IN HIS ASHRAM, POLICE TEAM RETURNS FROM HARIDWAR

Vartha Bharati

Lucknow, Sep 3: Acting under Supreme Court’s order, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe charges levelled by a Shahjahanpur woman against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.

The SIT to be headed by an IG-rank police officer will look into the two cross FIRs filed in the high-profile case.

A statement issued by the UP Home Department said, “A decision has been taken by UP Chief Secretary RK Tiwari to constitute an SIT, which would be headed by a IG (Public Grievance) Naveen Arora.” 

Directions have also been issued by the state government to include policemen with a clean image in the probe panel.

“This SIT will ensure impartial investigation into the two cross FIRs filed in the Shahjahanpur case and also probe the allegations levelled,” the statement said.

Instructions have been issued to Divisional Commissioner (Bareilly) and Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Ruhelkhand University, Bareilly, to admit the law student and her brother at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Ruhelkhand University, Bareilly or any affiliated college.

Directions have also been issued to the Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur to provide adequate security to the law student, her parents and other members of her family, it said.

The move by the UP government comes a day after the Supreme Court directed it to set up an SIT, headed by an IG-rank officer, to investigate the charges levelled by the woman.

The apex court had said that an Allahabad High Court bench will monitor the probe.

The law student had gone missing after levelling allegations against Chinmayanand in a video and was later found in Rajasthan by UP police.

The apex court judges said the woman had raised certain grievances against the institution where she studied and her mother and father had some apprehensions about the safety of their children.

The top court said the Delhi Police will accompany her parents to their residence in Shahjahanpur and the woman will continue her stay in the national capital till September 12.

The matter was listed for further hearing on September 5.

The apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the case after a group of lawyers had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi urging him to take up the matter.

A local police team, which had gone to former Union minister and BJP leader Chinmayanand’s Haridwar ashram to question him in connection with harassment allegations levelled by a woman law student, did not find him there, police said here on Tuesday.

The Shahjahanpur police had on August 27 lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand after the student went missing following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her. She also spoke about threat to her and her family’s life in the video clip.

Her father had filed a complaint with police accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by the BJP leader’s lawyer who claimed it was a “conspiracy” to blackmail him.

The woman’s father had alleged that she went missing at the behest of the 72-year-old BJP leader, who heads Mumukshu ashram. She is a post-graduate student in one of the colleges run by the ashram.

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday announced a list of five candidates for ensuing bypolls to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the names of five candidates for Uttar Pradesh and one candidate for Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada assembly seat bypoll, the party said.

The Congress has fielded Devti Karma as its candidate from Dantewada-(ST) constituency. 

In Uttar Pradesh, the party fielded Nauman Masood from Gangoh, Dilpreet Singh from Lucknow Cantt, Ranjana Pandey from Manikpur, Neeraj Tripathi from Pratapgarh and Tanuj Punia from Zaidpur.

Tanuj Punia, the son of senior party leader P L Punia, had earlier contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Barabanki parliamentary seat, losing to BJP candidate Upendra Rawat.