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Movie Review: ‘Shaandaar’ is certainly not Shaandaar

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Shaandaar

Director: Vikas Bahl Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Pankaj Kapur, Sanjay Kapoor, Niki Aneja Walia, Sanah Kapoor, Vikas Verma, Sushma Seth, Diljit Dosanjh, Shibani Dandekar, Anjana Sukhani, Niyati & Karan Johar. Music: Amit Trivedi

Director Vikas Bahl (of ‘Queen’ fame) had garnered a lot of critical acclaim from his last Outing ‘Queen’. But in his latest outing ‘Shaandaar’, supposed to be a romantic comedy with all the elements of a family drama, Vikas has seriously failed to woo the cine goers
The film kicks off with an animated sequence with a voice over by Naseeruddin Shah introducing all the characters. The scenario In opens with Vipin Arora (Pankaj Kapur) driving an orphan girl Alia (Alia Bhatt) whom he adopts and brings home where the girl is mistreated by his mom (Sushma Seth) & wife (Niki Aneja). Alia is suffering from a sleep disorder whose world revolves around her adopted father (Pankaj Kapur) and his half sister Isha (Sanah Kapoor). Pankaj Kapur plays a possessive father who is very protective for his daughters Alia & Isha. The movie showcases about 2 affluent families one headed by cunning Kamla Arora a Punjabi Businesswomen and the other headed by money minded Sindhi tycoon Harry Fandwani (Sanjay Kapoor). Both the families are on the verge of bankruptcy and come together for a destination marriage cum Business deal between Vipin’s daughter Isha & Harry’s brother Robin. There is also a wedding planner Jagjinder Joginder called JJ played (Shahid Kapoor) who falls in love with Alia.

Director Vikas Bahl fails to impress the audiences this time. In fact, the film has weak in some departments including Vikas’ direction albeit the film has its plus points its mesmerizing photography, lovely sets, attractive locales and above all some catchy numbers too.
Performance wise débutante Sanah Kapoor is superb. Shahid Kapoor is 1st rate. Alia Bhatt as usual is outstanding while the rest of the cast is just about ok.

All in all this time around Vikas’ ‘Queen’ is certainly not ‘Shaandaar.

Movie Review: ‘Te Aath Divas’ offers a clean & wholesome family entertainment after a long time

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TE AATH DIVAS

Producer: Kishore Dhargalkar & Shekhar Pradhan
Director: Shyam Swarnlata Ghanorkar
Starcast: Renuka Shahane, Tushar Dalvi, Aaroh Velankar, Deepali Muchrikar, Avinash Masurekar, Sunil Joshi, Atul Todankar etc
Genre: Drama
Verdict: GOOD

Plot: The story of this film revolves around a big joint family. In the beginning of the film, there are preparations going on for the wedding of the young girl from this family (Deepali Muchirkar) to her would – be groom (Aaroh Velankar). The boy is also eager to marry this girl; but there is confusion in the mind of this girl, when the film takes you into flashback. 8 days before the marriage, the girl’s mother (Renuka Shahane) arrives from USA. This ambitious woman had left the girl years ago in the custody of her husband (Tushar Dalvi), only to pursue her career there. Her arrival sparks off a new wave of happiness in the family. But when she comes to know that the marriage of her daughter is being fixed much against her own wish, she decides to help her.

Aces: The subject matter of the film is quite impressive with a wonderful twist in the 2nd half. That apart the credit also goes to director Shyam Swarnlata Ghanorkar for treating the film in a light hearted manner. And of course the presence of seasoned artistes like Renuka Shahane, Tushar Dalvi etc was like an added bonanza. A left handed compliment also goes to young actors like Aaroh Velankar, Deepali Muchrikar, Sunil Joshi etc.

Minuses: Some of the loose ends of the film which are the results of a not properly structured script.
Last Word: Te Aath Diwas is something different than the other stereotyped lavani based Marathi films. Te Aath Diwas also offers a clean & wholesome family entertainment after a long time.

Movie Review: ‘Titli’ is a good watch albeit very dark & disturbing

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titli

Producer: Aditya Chopra & Dibakar Bannerjee
Director: Kanu Behl
Star Cast: Ranvir Shorey, Amit Sial, Shashank Arora, Lalit Behl, Prashant Singh & Shivani Raghuvansi
Genre: Drama
Verdict: VERY GOOD

Plot: In the badlands of Delhi’s dystopic underbelly, Titli (Shashank Arora), the youngest member of a violent car – jacking brotherhood, plots a desperate bid to escape the ‘family’ business. His struggle to do so is countered at each stage by his indignant brothers (Ranvir Shorey & Amit Sial), who finally try marrying him off to ‘settle’ him. Titli, finds an unlikely ally in his new wife Neelu (Shivani Raghuvanshi), caught though she is in her own web of warped reality & dysfunctional dreams. They form a strange, beneficial partnership, only to confront their inability to escape the bindings of their family roots.

Aces: The best thing about Titli is the excellent direction of Kanu Behl and the outstanding performances of its principal cast right from Ranvir Shorey to Amit Sial, Shashank Arora, Latit Behl, Prashant Singh & Shivani Raghuvanshi.

Minuses: Some of the most violently shocking scenes topped with brutal cuss words galore.

Last Word: Titli is a must watch film for one & all albeit strictly not recommended for weak hearted persons.

Movie Review: ‘Mere Sai Ram’ is a clichéd film with nothing new to offer

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Mere-Sai-Ram

Producers: Sujit Ghosh & Arundhati Ghosh
Director: Navin Joshi
Star Cast: Rahul Barapatre, Piew Jana, Mukul Nag, Smita Dongre, Master Sairaj, Sunil Singh, Reshma Merchant, Kiran Sharma, Arvind Singh, Dhananjay Chaudhary, Vinod Anand, Nidhi & Sudhir Dalvi as Sai Baba.
Genre: Docu Drama
Verdict: AVERAGE

Scores of films have been made on Shirdi Ke Sai Baba, the 1st one being patriotic actor Manoj Kumar’s Shirdi Ke Sai Baba and now director Navin Joshi’s directorial offering Mere Sai Ram offers nothing new albeit Navin Joshi has given a romantic twist to the devotional theme to lure the cine goers.

Plot: The scenario kicks off with Dhondiram (Mukul Nag) who is a simple villager hailing from a very poor background. As an ardent devotee of Sai Baba (Sudir Dalvi) Dhondiram always converses & shares his day to day problems with Sai Baba. In fact his core belief centers around Sai Baba. Once Dhondiram dreams of Sai Baba who asks him to build a temple. Besides there is sub plot which revolves around the love story of Prakash (Rahul Barapatre), the village antagonist Zamindar’s (Dhananjay Choudhari) son, and Dhondiram’s sister (Piew Jana). The 2 stories connect and forms the crux of the film.

Aces: Sudhir Dalvi once again excels in the title role of Sai Baba. Mukul Nag as Sai Baba’s devotee is quite impressive. And last but not the least debutante actor Rahul Barapatere has a good screen presence which will prove to be a good advantage for him in the long run. That apart some of the Sai Bhajans are quiet catchy.

Minuses: The snail’s pace and some of the over repetitive scenes of the film prove to be a hindrance in the narrative.

Last Word: This docu drama Mere Sai Ram is strictly recommended for the most ardent Sai Baba devotees and above all the most ardent Sai Baba fans.

Movie Review: ‘Ranveer – The Marshall’ is very impressive & certainly a not to be missed movie

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Ranveer - The Marshall

Producer: Alok Ranjan Sharma
Director: Milind Ukey
Star Cast: Rishy, Ramnitu Chaudhary, Rati Agnihotri, Rajesh Kattar, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Robin Das & Rafiq
Genre: Action & Drama
Verdict: GOOD

Director Milind Ukey had 1st gained an instant limelight with a very meaningful film Paathshaala. In between he made many films and once again he has come up with a very informative and enlightening film on martial arts namely ‘Ranviir – The Marshall.

Plot: Ranviir (Rishy) is a college going guy staying with his mom (Rati Agnihotri) in a hill station. In college he falls in love with a girl (Ramnitu Chaudhary), he is also been ragged often by his seniors. Ultimately they all become friends and they suggest Ranviir to join the Taekwondo classes. But Ranviir’s mom is dead set against it. Once Ranviir gets attacked by College goons but Ranviir does not hit back as he had promised his mom that he will not fight. Now his mom reveals the past and tells him to go ahead with his martial arts classes so that he can fight back in self defence.

Aces: Milind Ukey’s directional skills especially in martial arts oriented action sequences, the entire never before seen daringly different martial arts sequences and of course the two melodious romantic songs. That apart Rishy the main lead hero is quite impressive in his debut movie but he certainly has to hone up his acting skills more if he has to survive in Bollywood.

Minuses: Some of the long drawn out scenes and clichéd fight sequences amongst the college going youths.

Last Word: A not to be missed movie for the lovers of action movies especially of the martial arts kind. Initially the film may take time to pick up but word of mouth publicity will certainly bolster the prospects of the movie.

Movie Review: ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ is a hardly convincing movie

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THE LAST WITCH HUNTER

Producer: Mark Canton & Bernie Goodman
Director: Breck Eisner
Star Cast: Vin Diesel, Rosie Leslie, Elijah Wood, Isreal Baldecanas & Micheal Caine
Genre: Fantasy
Verdict: Poor

Plot: The modern world holds many secrets, but the most astounding secret of all is that witches still live amongst us; vicious supernatural creatures intent on unleashing the Black Death upon the world. Armies of witch hunters battled the unnatural enemy across the globe for centuries, including Kaulder, a valiant warrior who managed to slay the all – powerful Queen Witch, decimating her followers in the process. In the moments right before her death, the Queen curses Kaulder with her own immortality, forever separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. Today Kaulder is the only one of his kind remaining, and has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all the while yearning for his long – lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to Kaulder, the Queen Witch is resurrected and seeks revenge on her killer causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race.

Aces: Two gigantic actors like Vin Diesel & Micheal Caine deliver an astoundingly par excellence performance but that’s all there is to a dumbest movie The Last Witch Hunter.

Minuses: The hardly convincing storyline topped with the hardly convincing direction of Breck Eisner.

Last Word: Even the fantasy and horror lover fans are advised to stay miles away from the so called movie The Last Witch Hunter.

Movie Review: ‘Rock The Kasbah’ is an interesting, entertaining & enjoyable movie

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ROCK THE KASBAH

Producers: Steve Bing, Bill Block & Jacob Pechenik
Director: Barry Levinson
Star Cast: Bill Murray, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride, Scott Caan, Leem Lubany, Kelly Lynch, Arian Moayed, Taylor Kinny, Beejan Land & Bruce Willis
Genre: Comedy
Verdict: GOOD

Plot: Rock The Kasbah is the story of Richie Vance, a has-been rock manager who takes his last remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan. When Richie finds himself in Kabul, abandoned, penniless and without his passport, he discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice and manages her through Afghanistan’s version of “American Idol” the wildly popular “Afghan Star.”

Aces: The mesmerizing performance of Zooey Deschanel in the main role of an aspiring singer and an equally catchy cameo act of Beejan Land as the host of the show Afghan Star.

Minuses: The lacklustre direction of Barry Levinson and its slow space. The editing part of it could have been crisper. And pray what was Bill Murray & Bruce Willis, both spent force, doing in the whole scheme of things or were they just taken on board as ex – veteran actors.

Last Word: A really interesting film made on the myth & the truth of a reality show. If only director Barry Levinson had paid more attention to the scattered script of Rock The Kasbah, it would have enlivened the proceedings.

Movie Review: ‘Crimson Peak’ is entertaingly enjoyable albeit not so scary

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Crimson Peak

Producer: Callum Greene, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull & Guillermo Del Toro
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Star Cast: Mia Wasikowaka, Jessika Chastian, Tom Hiddleston, Jim Beaver & Charlie Hunnam,
Genre: Horror
Verdict: AVERAGE

The most famous works of director Guillermo Del Toro were The Hobbit series, The Orphanage, Hell Boy series, The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Blade series et al all which falls into the Horror oriented category. In short Guillermo Del Toro happens to be one director who has hardly deviated his film making attention from one particular genre.

Plot: When her heart is stolen by a seductive stranger, a young woman is swept away to a house atop a mountain of blood – red clay: a place filled with secrets that will haunt her forever. Between desire & darkness, between mystery & madness, lies the truth behind Crimson Peak. So from the imagination of director Guillermo Del Toro comes a supernatural mystery starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska & Charlie Hunnam.

Aces: The only redeeming factor of Crimson Peak are the par excellence performance of its male brigade of actors like Tom Hiddleton, Jim Beaver & above all Charlie Hunnan who is simply superb.

Minuses: Wonder why a master of the horror genre like Guillermo Del Toro has seriously failed to live up to audiences expectations.

Last Word: Tom tomed as the most scary fare Crimson Peak fails to catch your most scary fancy.

Movie Review: ‘Jazbaa’ is a captivating thriller with good performances that makes it a decent watch

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Jazbaa

Banner: White Feather Films & Viiking Media & Entertaiment
Producer: Sanjay Gupta, Aishwarya Rai, Anuradha Gupta, Nittin Keni, Akash Chawla, Sachin R. Joshi & Raina Sachin R. Joshi
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Cast: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, Shabana Azmi, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni, Siddhanth Kapoor, Priya Banerjee, Sara Arjun, Abhimanyu Singh et al
Music: Amjad – Nadeem Arko, Pravo Mukherjee & Amar Mohile
Distribution: Essel Vision Productions

Director Sanjay Gupta is more famous for his thriller movies genre in the past. And once again he has delivered the goods in his latest offering ‘Jazbaa’ albeit this time he has laced the movie with a bit of emotionalism too, probably to tug at the viewer’s heart strings too.

The intricatly plotted scenerio of ‘Jazbaa’ kicks off with Anuradha Verma (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a prominent criminal lawyer and a single mother who has never lost a case. One day her daughter Sanaya (Sara Arjun) is kidnapped and no ransom is demanded, but instead the kidnapper contacts her and tells her that she has to defend a convicted felon to get her daughter back. The felon is Miyaaz Shaikh (Chandan Roy Sanyal) who is convicted for rape & murder of a young woman and the case against him is set for judgement in 4 days. The kidnapper keeps track of Anuradha very closely to make sure she complies with his demand. With the pressure of time against her, Anuradha tries to get help from her suspended police friend Yohan (Irrfan Khan) who has been suspended from the police force for flaunting the rules & the regulations too often. The case against Miyaaz Shaikh is handled by a renowned public prosecutor (Atul Kulkarni) who has been defeated by Anuradha time & again and hence has a long time professional rivalry against her.

Director Sanjay Gupta has officially made ‘Jazbaa’ as the indianised version of the Korean movie ‘Seven Days’ packing in all the edge – of – the – seat punches topped with his par excellence directional skills. In fact the movie ‘Jazbaa’ sounds almost like a perfectly crafted slick Hollywood thriller, yet the film lacks in its repeat value deviod of any mass entertainment value. The film also proves weak in its proper romanticism depiction & musical treatment barring the first rate backgrond score of Amar Mohile. That apart his other behind – the – scenes technicians have also given a first rate account of their unsurpassed talent perfectly living upto his directorial expectations and that includes each & every bit role playing actors too. A word of extreme praise also goes to all the producers backing the project and of course last but not the least to Nittin Keni too for his distributional vision through his Essel Vision Company.

Performance wise the film ‘Jazbaa’ clearly belongs to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as her overtly perfect comback launch pad after 5 long years. She delivers a towering performance despite the towering presence of a superbly talented performer like Irrfan Khan. But sadly speaking this time around Irrfan Khan could not stand tall with his volcano of talent with his half the time dopey act, against an equally talented performer like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Yet all said & done the duo has perfecty matched their talent in a few scenes at least. And for that the entire credit goes to director Sanjay Gupta for capturing & extracting a raw & stunning performance from the duo. Next in line the veteran actress Shabana Azmi, on the other hand, comes up with yet another sterling performance. The remaining actors like Jackie Shroff, Priya Banerjee, Siddhant Kapoor, Chandan Roy Sanyal & Atul Kulkarni too have excelled beyond imagination in their respectively brief cameo roles.

Tail Piece: ‘Jabaa’ is a captivating thriller with good performances that makes it a decent watch for the entire family audiences.

Movie Review: ‘Sicario’ is a riveting edge of the seat thriller movie

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Sicario

Producer: Basil Iwanyk, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill, Edward McDonell & Molly Smith
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Star Cast: Emily Blunt, Benecio Del Toro, Josh Brolin & Victor Garber
Genre: Thriller
Verdict: Good

Plot: In the lawless border area stretching between US & Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent (Emily Blunt) is enlisted by an elite Government task force official (Josh Brolin) to aid in the escalating war against drugs. Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past (Benicio Del Toro), the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.

Aces: Director Denis Villeneuve has crafted a perfect thriller movie aided & abetted by his entire coterie of actors & technicians.

Minuses: Certainly not a mainstream fare.

Last Word: Quite a though provoking movie especially meant for the classy cine goers.

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