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Movie Review: Bangistan is purely a puerile & futile attempt and a waste of time, energy & finances

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Bangistan

Director: Karan Anshuman
Cast: Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez & Pulkit Samrat

Director Karan Anshuman has followed the same oft repeated & beaten to death path of terrorism topic in ‘Bangistan’, mainly with the same satirical depiction of the same anti – terrorist elements existing between the 2 countries India & Pakistan since they got Independence. And after watching the film everyone will agree that it was purely a puerile & futile attempt and a waste of time, energy & finances of everyone concerned including this reviewer & of course the cine goers too.

Any ways the dullest scenario of ‘Bangistan’ kick starts with the ‘demographical introduction’ of a fictitious country named ‘Bangistan’. The country is divided into 2 parts with North Bangistan occupied by the Muslims while South Bangistan is occupied by the Hindus. As the name suggests, the country is full of people who believe that the only way to bring peace to the world is by means of violence and the south & the north are always at war with each other. On the other hand, the focus shifts to a video conferencing call between religious heads of Bangistan, Imaam (Tom Alter) & Shankaracharya (Shiv Subramaniam), discussing about the upcoming ’13th World Religious Conference’ that is to be held in Poland. Then there happens to be the introduction of Hafeez Bin Ali aka Harold (Riteish Deshmukh), who quits his job at a call centre after a certain ‘religious backlash’. He then gets handpicked by the chief of ‘Al – Kaam Tamaam’ to represent their outfit and to become a suicide bomber to blow up the peace conference. In order to avoid being ‘recognized’ by anyone, he completely metamorphosis into a Hindu as ‘Ishwarchand Sharma’. On the other hand, there also exists a struggling actor Pravin Chaturvedi (Pulkit Samrat), a devout Hindu and also a follower of the religious Hindu outfit ‘Maa Ka Dal’. He too gets handpicked by the leader of ‘Maa Ka Dal’ in order to double up as a human bomb at the peace conference. Just like Hafeez, Pravin too undergoes a completele metamorphosis, the only difference being that he disguises himself as a Muslim under the name of ‘Allah Rakha’. Destiny makes the duo meet each other not only at the airport on reaching Poland (where they strip themselves to their bare minimum on ‘humanitarian grounds’), but also end up as neighbours. Noticing how much they respect each other’s religion and how similar they are, the duo become close friends in an alien country..…..until one day Pravin discovers the real motive of Hafeez Bin Ali.

Director Karan Anshuman utterly fails to connect with the audiences in all aspects & respects. He has projected himself as a bad director as he not only lacks the directional skills & expertise but also fails to extract work from both his cast & crew. Here again he has wasted everyone’s talent. The first thing he should do is to take a sabbatical and then to take a fresh & intense course in direction. Besides why make such films and increase more enmity between the Hindus & the Muslims or more espcially between India & Pakistan. Just let everyone be in peace and refrain from making such non – sensical films in future.

Performance wise there is not even a single performance that can be singled out for holding out even an iota of interest of the viewers. Everyone from Ritesh to Pulkit to Jacqueline and even the bit roles players seemed to be disinterested and have sleep walked throughout the film.

Tail Piece: Stay miles away from a film called ‘Bangistan’ even in your wildest dreams.

Movie Review: Brothers is strictly recommended for die hard fans of action movies

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brothers

Director: Karan Malhotra
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Siddharth Malhotra, Jackie Shroff, Shefali Shah, Ashtosh Rana, Kiran Kumar, Ashok Lokhande et al & Kareena Kapoor – Khan in an item number.

Director Karan Malhotra in his last outing ‘Agneepath’ had made a really decent film. But his latest offering ‘Brothers’, which is an official remake of ‘Warrior’, leaves enough room for doubts. In a way he does not fully live up to the audience expectations. Besides the film has too much of blood & gore in the excessively violent street fights as well as the boxing ring fight sequences.

The loosely emotion less plotted scenario of ‘Brothers’ opens with the release of Gary (Jackie Shroff) from a jail after having served imprisonment for accidentally killing his wife Maria (Shefali Shah). Upon his release from the jail, he is received by his son Monty (Sidharth Malhotra). When Gary asks Monty about his elder son David (Akshay Kumar), the story goes into a flashback mode which reflects the past life of Gary and all the reasons & incidents that led him to be jailed. Realising his mistake, when Gary goes to David to ask for forgiveness for all his misdoings, David refuses to forgive him. David’s life now only revolves around his wife Jenny (Jacqueline Fernandez) and his 6 year old daughter Maria, who is suffering from a serious kidney ailment. It is for the treatment of Maria that David doubles up as a Physics professor as well as a street fighter. However, fearing the impression that he will leave on his students, the school authorities debar him from his job. This makes David furthermore helpless and street fighting becomes his only hope of survival. Around the same time, enters Peter (Kiran Kumar) who is all set to give the street fighting a much needed facelift in the form of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) by organising the world renowned ‘R2F’ tournament (Right To Fight) in India, which boasts of a prize money that amounts to a whopping Rs. 9 crores to the ultimate winner. Monty, who is already a street fighter, gets attracted to this contest while Paasha (Ashutosh Rana) signs up David as his fighter for the tournament. Monty receives all the possible training under his ex – fighter father Gary, on the other hand, knowing this is a lifetime opportunity David grabs it with both the hands. With no trainer guiding him, David starts his set of hardcore training for the deadly combat. The tournament begins and David & Monty beat their powerful opponents one after the other. After having defeated all the opponents, there comes a time when the final battle is between David & Monty and the one who ‘cripples’ the other will become the ultimate winner.

Incidentally speaking director Karan Malhotra deserves brickbats as wells kudos for this Hollywoodian remake. Brickbats, because he failed to convey the exact emotionalism quotient mainly because of the poorly scripted  characterisation. Kudos for his depiction of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and also in portraying the struggles of a middle class Indian family.

Performance wise Akshay Kumar tops the list, first as a Physics lecturer and then as a street fighter and of course as an emotionally charged father too who goes to all lengths, just to save his daughter’s life. But then he lacks conviction in portraying his angst against his own father. The next towering performance, in fact his career’s best act, has been delivered by none other than Jackie Shroff. Its sad that Siddharth Malhotra has been pitied against the 2 excellent performers namely Akshay Kumar & Jackie Shroff. Yet Sidharth Malhotra has stood his ground and delivered a credible performance. Jacqueline Fernandez as a de – glamorised mother, her career’s first, of a 6 year old ailing kid has delivered a very realistic & convincing performance. On the other hand Shefali Shah has delivered an excellent performance in her strong albeit briefest role. The other notable performances has come from seasoned actor’s like Kiran Kumar, Ashutosh Rana et al. By the way a special well – deserved mention must also be made of the child artistes
and the young actors who have played the childhood and the younger versions of Akshay Kumar & Siddharth Malhotra respectively.

Tail Piece: Strictly recommended for lovers of action films & fans of Akshay, Jacqueline & Siddharth. Period!

Shame on Salman Khan for supporting Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa

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It is the actor and those who support him in this act of insensitivity who need to be condemned.

Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (AFP Photo)

Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (AFP Photo)

by Shobha Shakti

The Sri Lankan government and President Mahinda Rajapaksa have for several years denied the fact that foreign citizens who enter the country with tourist visas have been a part of political meetings and discussions in Lankan media forums. Previously, many Tamil sympathisers, including poet VIC Jayabalan, a citizen of Norway, and journalist Maha Tamil Prabhakaran, were arrested and deported by the Sri Lankan government. Also, Kumar Gunaratnam, a leader of one of Sri Lanka’s leading parties – the Frontline Socialist Party – was clandestinely arrested, imprisoned and deported on the grounds of being an Australian citizen. Senior Tamil professor, A Marx, who was scheduled to deliver a speech at a public gathering in Colombo, was arrested by policemen, even before he could begin. I have always considered such actions by the Sri Lankan government anti-democratic.

But now, Mahinda Rajapaksa has brought Salman Khan, a foreign citizen into the country, to campaign for him in the forthcoming polls. Kumar Gunaratnam, who was deported three years ago, has also been brought back into the country under a tourist visa, and I see the prime reason behind this to be his capability to affect the Opposition party’s performance. Having said that, it also holds true that no one campaigning in support of the Opposition party is allowed to enter the country, even if he/she is of Sri Lankan origin under a tourist visa. Doing so could lead to his/her arrest and deportation.

While I agree that Salman Khan has the right to express his views at any forum, joining a political campaign in support of a man who has been accused of war crimes and genocide, is condemnable for me and anyone who is also a supporter of democracy. On one hand, when the democratic forces and minorities of the country are together striving to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa and get his government out of power, this act by Salman Khan is insulting, endorses discrimination and neglects the insensitivities that have occurred on this soil.

CommentOne of the groups protesting against Salman Khan in Mumbai – the Naam Tamilar Katchi – had in the past attacked a group of Buddhist monks and pilgrims visiting India from Sri Lanka. While such acts of violence can never be justified, a calm, democratic protest being carried out against the actor is fair to the freedom of people. It is Salman Khan and those who support him in this act of insensitivity, who need to be condemned, and not the ones voicing their angst against it in peaceful objection.

Shobha Shakti is a former LTTE child soldier who now lives as a refugee in Paris. The English translation of his second novel, Hmm…, is forthcoming from Penguin India.

Vaiko calls Salman Khan a betrayer for campaigning for Rajapaksa

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Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (AFP Photo)

Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (AFP Photo)

Chennai: Hitting out at Bollywood actor Salman Khan for allegedly campaigning for Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, MDMK chief Vaiko on Monday dubbed him as a ‘betrayer.’

“He is also a betrayer,” Vaiko told reporters here when asked about this.

Earlier, reports had suggested that the Indian superstar, along with actor Jacqueline Fernandez, had been roped in to campaign for the Lankan leader, who is testing his electoral fortunes for a third time in the coming Presidential elections, due next month in the island republic.

Rajapaksa is under fire from political parties in Tamil Nadu, especially MDMK, as he was at the helm of affairs in 2009 when civilian casualties in the Tamil-dominated areas in Sri Lanka’s northeast reportedly peaked during the last leg of the war between Lankan army and LTTE.

Khan is not the only Indian influence in the Rajapaksa campaign. It has been reported that Arvind Gupta, a BJP social media guru, is helping the incumbent in the social media side of the campaign.

The presidential election will take place on January 8 as Rajapaksa called the election two years ahead of schedule in an apparent attempt to seek fresh mandate before his party’s popularity tumbles further, after dropping over 21% in September local elections.

(PTI)

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