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Movie Review: ‘Biker’s Adda’ is an interesting film and definitely worth a watch

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Biker's Adda

Producer: Pramod Maruti Lokhande & Veejay Haria
Director: Rajesh Latkar
Star Cast: Santosh Juvekar, Prarthana Behere, Shrikant Moghe, Shrikant Wattamvar, Rahulraj Dongare, Tanvie Kishore, Hrishikesh Mandke, Jai Aditya Giri, Anuradha Harrip, Devendra Bhagat & Nishi Rajshirke
Genre: Action
Verdict: Good

Hats off to producer Pramod Maruti Lokhande, Veejay Haria and director Rajesh Latkar for making a daringly different film like Biker’s Adda and not falling for the temptation to make the same old clichéd Marathi films which had almost became a staple diet of Marathi cine goers.

Plot: The story line of this movie is all about being the passionate bikers who are looking forward to pursue their career in no other field than biking and hereby biking is promoted as a sport. These are adult bike riders and cops believe that the rules for them are same too that focuses drug usage. Multiple stunts are performed in the entire movie by these riders and they race with an urge to only WIN no matter what the situation is.

Aces: Rajesh Latkar’s direction, the daredevil biking stunts and of course the performances of the principal cast.

Minuses: The clichéd inclusion of the drugs & the mafia racket and some of the routine action sequences.

Last Word: How one wishes that Biker’s Adda was just a pure adventurous sports film. Yet Biker’s Adda is worth a watch for one & all.

Movie Review: ‘The Walk’ is a daringly crafted different movie

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The Walk

Producer: Tom Rothman, Steve Starkey, Jack Rapke & Robert Zemeckis
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Star Cast: Joseph Gordon – Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale & Ben Schwartz
Genre: Drama
Verdict: Very Good

Robert Zemeckis is known more for his films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Forest Gump etc. In his latest offering The Walk, a real life adventure drama based on the life & memoirs of a French Live Wire artist Philippe Petit, he has gone that extra mile to craft that edge of the seat drama.

Plot: As a boy, Philippe Petit dreams of performing daring feats for dazzled crowds. As an adult (Joseph Gordon – Levitt), his life’s ambition comes true when he becomes a high – wire artist who stares death in the face with every step. Under the guidance of mentor Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), the daredevil devises a plan to walk on a tightrope attached to the north & the south towers of the World Trade Center. With help from his team and against all odds, Petit attempts the seemingly impossible stunt on 7th Aug, 1974.

Aces: The film clearly belongs to Joseph Gordon – Levitt as the main protagonist Philippe Petit who has delivered an unbelievably daring & outstanding performance. Another marvellous performance comes from Ben Schwartz. Not to forget the remarkable directional skills of Robert Zemeckis barring the fact that he has heavily depended on digitalised techniques.

Minuses: The only hindrance of the movie The Walk is its exceedingly slow space which sometimes gets on your nerves.

Last word: If you are a lover of real life adventure drama, then the movie The Walk is just up your alley.

Movie Review: ‘Mungala’ is no doubt a very realistic & offbeat film

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Mungala

Producer: Gaurav Bhanushali
Director: Vijay Devkar
Star Cast: Lokesh Gupte, Jyoti Joshi, Suhas Palshikar, Ganesh Yadav, Chetan Dalvi etc
Genre: Drama
Verdict: AVERAGE

Plot: A village is suffering due to draught since a long time and the end to this problem is nowhere in sight. The villagers daily wait for the tanker to arrive to quench their thirst and to fulfil their other household chores. One of the youth Kisan has come to the village after being sacked due to the recession period in the city.  One of the other youth who has gone to the city dies and now his widow is left to fend for herself and her mother – in – law.  And then Kisan devises a plan with his village bumpkins to bring the village back to normalcy. And in the end all is well that ends well and Kisan too, then decides to tie the Knot with the widow.

Aces: Producer Gaurav Bhanushali along with the director Vijay Devkar deserves a standing ovation for presenting such a realistic and off beat subject especially on the Marathi celluloid silver screen. All the actors have performed their act too sincerely and honestly. A special well deserved mention must be made of Lokesh Gupte as Kisan and Jyoti Joshi as the widow.

Minuses: The only minus point of the film is its snail space. As nothing seems to be moving the way it should. In short the film is too verbose. Besides the director Vijay Devkar should have resisted the temptation of forcefully entering an item song.

Last Word: The prospects of Mungala at the box office looks grim but it will definitely succeed in doing good business in the single theatres & tent cinemas especially of the interiors. That apart the film will win rave reviews and awards galore in the festival circuit.

Movie Review: ‘Daagdi Chaawl’ is an eyeoper & a hard hitting film based on gang war

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Daagdi Chaawl

Producer: Mangal Murti FIlms & Sai Pooja Entertaintment & Film
Director: Chandrakant Kanse
Star Cast: Ankush Chaudhari, Pooja Sawant, Makarand Deshpande, Sanjay Khapre, Kamlesh Sawant, Yatin Karyekar etc
Genre:  Action & Drama
Verdict: Good

Plot: The plotted scenario of Dagdi Chawl starts off in an era of 1996 and revolves around a person called Surya (Ankush Chaudhari), who leads a peaceful life in one of the chawls of Mumbai. He owns his own work setup and is almost on the verge of settling down in life by marrying his beloved (Pooja Sawant). In that particular era of 1996 underworld activities were still to be seen live on the streets of Mumbai. In this milieu one such incident happens with Surya, which lands him in a situation where he has to come face to face with ‘Daddy’ aka Arun Gawli (Makrand Deshpande) and Surya’s journey in the underworld also starts off, so does his struggle to disassociate himself with the tag of Daagdi Chawl, which lands him further deep into the activities of Daagdi Chawl. Besides he is also pitied against Daddy.

Aces: Hats off to director Chandrakant Kanse for tackling such a complex issue of the mafia and its constant and ruthless gang wars and for this the credit should also go to the art director who recreated a perfect ambience of the bygone era of Dagdi Chawl. That apart Ankush Chaudhari is outstanding as Surya as he has literally got into the skin of the character.

Minuses: Some of the scenes are outright repetitive which may not go down well with the audience.

Last Word: A film like Dagdi Chawl is an eye opener once again for one and all that no matter what, crime never pays, but if at all one gets caught in its web unwillingly than there is always a way out if one wills it.

Movie Review: ‘Singh Is Bling’ has mass appeal with its full on entertainment quotient

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Singh-Is-Bliing

Producers: Akshay Kumar, Ashvini Yardi & Jayantilal Gada
Director: Prabu Dheva
Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta, Kay Kay Menon, Pradeep Rawat, Anil Mange, Arfi Lamba, Rati Agnihotri, Kunal Kapoor, Murali Sharma etc
Genre: Action Comedy
Verdict: Good

Prabhu Dheva’s latest directorial offering Singh Is Bliing may not be really impressive, but it does have its profound moments of Mass Appeal glory. So Singh Is Bliing is like a common man’s recipe served with a full on entertainment toppings.

Plot: Raftaar Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a good for nothing but a jolly good fellow staying in Punjab. In spite of being the apple of his mother’s (Rati Agnihotri) eye, his father (Pradeep Rawat) is fed up of his buffoonery antics at regular intervals and soon enough packs him off to Goa to work with his friend in his beach resort. On the other hand Sara (Amy Jackson) comes to Goa from Romania in search of her mother. Both Raftaar & Sara meet but it takes eons for the two of the them to fall in love mainly because of the language barriers. That apart there is a joker in the pack Mark (Kay Kay Menon) who is hell bent on marrying Sara.

Aces: The hilarious antics of Akshay Kumar and his two sidekicks Anil Mange and Arfi Lamba, the trio of whom enliven the proceedings time and again. Director Prabhu Dheva is back with a bang after his dismal failure in his last outing Action Jackson.

Minuses: The film also has its moments of ill logical events with a set of disjointed pieces occurring right through the entire duration of the film.

Last Word: All in all Singh Is Bliing is a full on entertaning film.

Movie Review: ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ is a full on paisa vasool entertainment

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Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

Producers: Rao Hasnain, Ganesh Jain & Ratan Jain
Director: Abbas Mustan
Cast: Kapil Sharma, Arbaaz Khan, Manjari Phadnis, Elli Avram, Simran Kaur Mundi, Varun Sharma, Sai Lokur et al
Music: Tanishk Bagchi, Dr Zeus, Javed Mohsin & Amjad – Nadeem

The director duo Abbas – Mustan needs no special introduction in Bollywood firmament. They have made many stars & delivered many hits in their career. And now once again in their latest offering ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ they have gifted a new star in the making namely the stand up comedian Kapil Sharma.

The movie starts off with the definition of ‘shaadi’ and also with the introduction of Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan aka Bholu (Kapil Sharma) in a swanky car. Even as he drives the car, the audiences are driven to a flashback of events that establishes the connection between Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan’s past with his present. If one had to sum up his life, then, the only statement that would do total justice to it is ‘Kar bhala toh ho bura’. Every time Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan lands up helping a girl (unmarried, to be specific) in distress, he lands up marrying that girl! That establishes the fact as to how he gets married to Juhi (Manjari Fadnis), Simran (Simran Kaur Mundi) & Anjali (Sai Lokur). Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan very successfully hides his marriage from all the 3 girls err… wives. And in order to avoid problems, he places them at various locations of Bandra, Borivali & Kandivali. But, upon the ‘expert advice’ of his close friend lawyer Karan (Varun Sharma), Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan buys one flat for each wife in an ironically named building called ‘Cocktail Towers’. To all his wives, he explains his super busy schedule stating that he has 3 different ‘offices’ to be taken care of. He even names his different offices (read ‘wives’) on his mobile phone as ‘Head Office’, ‘Branch Office’ & ‘Area Office’. The common excuse that Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan gives to all the 3 wives is that, because of his super busy job, he will spend one night with them and two nights in the office. In that way, he actually does justice to all the three wives. The story takes a U-turn with the entry of Deepika aka ‘Enquiry Office’ (Elli Avram), the girl whom he really loves. Due to the fear of losing Deepika, Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan keeps her too in the dark about his marriages and his respective wives.

Hats off to the director duo Abbas – Mustan for moving out of their thriller comfort zone & serving the viewers with a delightful comic oriented recipe.

Performance wise debutante Kapil Sharma has done wonders. And he surely did not have to move out of his comfort zone of comedy He is equally good in romance & emotional arena. As for the heroines Manjari Phadnis, Elli Avram, Simran Kaur Mundi are concerned they are superb in their own individual roles. Another outstanding performance comes from Varun Sharma. But the same cannot be said about the other actors of the movie.

Tail Piece: Not to be missed film at any cost.

Movie Review: ‘Bhaag Johnny’ can best be described as the boring to death film of the decade

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Bhaag Johnny

Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar & Vikram Bhatt
Director: Shivam Nair
Cast: Kunal Khemu, Zoa Morani, Mandana Karimi, Raja Virus, Mansi Scott, Arun Bali, Aseem Merchant, Vikram Bhatt, Mukul Dev, Nishigandha Wad et al
Music: Devi Sri Prasad, Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari & Yo Yo Honey Singh

Director Shivam Nair has once again failed to deliver the directorial goods in his latest offering ‘Bhaag Johnny’. Even in his last half a dozen directorial attempts he had suffered the same fate. And now it is high time that he makes a serious choice of alternate career, instead of torturing the viewers & of course the poor money bags (Read Producers) too. Who had the guts to back his directorial projects till this date.

The plotted scenario of ‘Bhaag Johnny’ takes off with an extremely worried and concerned Savitri (Nishigandha Wad) meeting up a spiritual guru Acharyaji (Arun Bali) in order to know about the safety & whereabouts of her son who is settled in Bangkok. This is immediately followed by a ‘musical introduction’ of her son Janardhan Arora aka Johnny (Kunal Khemu). Just when things are getting settled down, Johnny’s boss Ramona Bakshi (Mansi Scott) summons him to her cabin and accuses him of ‘insider trading’ in the company. She also gives him a couple of choices as a punishment. The 1st option is to serve 10 years of Rigorous Imprisonment in jail and the 2nd option is to spend 3 days in Pattaya. After much reluctance and a failed escape plan to India, Johnny chooses the Pattaya option. The moment he reaches Pattaya, he is loaded with a set of instructions from Ramona Bakshi’s man aka ‘Mr. Nobody’ (Aseem Merchant), who instructs Johnny to kill Tanya (Zoa Morani). Left with absolutely no option, the very moment Johnny makes up his mind to kill Tanya, there appears a ‘jin’ (Vikram Bhatt), at the behest of Acharyaji. The ‘jin’ offers to help Johnny in a very unnatural way. He gives Johnny 2 lives to live. While in the ‘1st life’ Johnny can kill Tanya and see the consequences for himself, in the ‘2nd life’, Johnny can save Tanya see the consequences. Game for this, Johnny starts living both the lives and faces the consequences in both. The story takes a sudden U – turn when the 2 Johnnys meet each other face to face.

Director Shivamm Nair has taken everyone concerned for a ride in a fool’s paradise. As nothing but nothing seems to work in case of ‘Bhaag Johnny’. Need anything more be said?

Performance wise Kunal Khemu is the lone actor who has done a fair justice to his dual role. On the other hand the female brigade comprising Mandana Karimi, Manasi Scott & Zoa Morani have lent an adequate support to Kunal Khemu’s character. Vikram Bhatt the director turned actor is miscast in the role of a ‘Jin’. Mukul Dev in the role of a pony tailed ACP is an eyesore. While the rest of the actors comprising of Raja Virus, Arun Bali, Aseem Merchant, Nishigandha Wad et al have just sleep walked through their roles.
Tail Piece: Don’t waste your time. If you have nothing better to do, just sleep at home like ‘Bhaag Johnny’ have sleep walked in the whole film.

Movie Review: ‘The Martian’ is not so interesting and strictly recommended for lovers of sci-fi cinema

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the martian

Producer: Simon Kinberg, Micheal Schaefer, Mark Huffman, Ridley Scott & Aditya Sood
Director: Ridley Scott
StarCast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastian, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels & Micheal Pena
Genre: Sci-Fi
Verdict: Average

Plot: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit & spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.

Aces: It’s the director Ridley Scott and the actor Matt Damon show all the way in league with the way the cameraman has captured the Mars planet and the storm that takes place out there.

Minuses: Too much of scientific mumbo jumbo and a serious lack of drama to heighten the viewers interest in the goings on.

Last Word: ‘The Martian’ is a typical sci – fi melodrama which can be strictly recommended for lovers of this genre of cinema.

Movie Review: ‘The Intern’ has hardly any comedy it sounds like more of an escapist entertainment

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The-Intern-2015

Producers: Suzanne Farewell & Nancy Meyers
Director: Nancy Meyers
Star Cast: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathway, Rene Russo, Zack Pearlman & Adam DeVine
Genre: Comedy
Verdict: Average

Plot: Starting a new job can be a difficult challenge, especially if you’re already retired. Looking to get back into the game, 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) seizes the opportunity to become a senior intern at an online fashion site. Ben quickly becomes popular with his younger co-workers, including Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), the boss and founder of the company. Whittaker’s charm, wisdom and sense of humour help him develop a special bond and growing friendship with Jules.

Aces: The rock solid performances of not only Robert De Niro and Anne Hathway but also of Rene Russo, Zack Pearlman & Adam DeVine

Minuses: The directional skills of Nancy Meyers leaves much to be desired.

Last Word: The only saving grace of the film is that it comes off as a form of escapist entertainment.

Movie Review: ‘Pawn Sacrifice’ keeps you spell bound from the beginning till the end

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Pawn Sacrifice

Producers: Gail Katz, Toby Maguire & Edward Zwick
Director: Edward Zwick
Star Cast: Toby Maguire, Peter Saargaard, Liev Schrieber, Micheal Stulbarg, Lily Rabe & Robin Weigert
Genre: Thriller
Verdict: GOOD

Plot: In a gripping true story set during the height of Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire. Also starring Liev Schreiber & Peter Sarsgaard, Pawn Sacrifice chronicles Fischer’s terrifying struggles with genius & madness, and the rise & fall of a kid from Brooklyn who captured the imagination of the world.

Aces: Toby Maguire’s superlative performance topped a riveting screenplay and excellent direction of Edward Zwick.

Minuses: The sexual content and profanity deviates one from the main core of the story.

Last Word: The gripping suspense of this thriller hooks you till you leave the darkened auditorium.

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