Movie Review : Manmarziyaan

Love thy Confusion!

Manmarziyaan

Let’s just say Bollywood movies are doing the resurrections quite well now, not the horror though. Manmarziyaan is a resurrection of “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” to Anurag Kashyap style romance. Yes! Romance and Anurag Kashyap in the same sentence, highly unlikely of the two to tango, but they do! and wow us completely. I have good laughs and cheeky smiles through out the movie. I did not enjoy a movie like Hum dil de chuke sanam and yet this one was a joy to watch. Anurag Kashyap brings out his subtle side, which I never knew existed from his brashness of storytelling so one is pleasantly surprised and happy. Manmarziyaan is a genius reflection on love and companionship, keeps the audience from picking up a side. The first half will fly away, the second half gets a little slow specially the end. Though a true love story should have an element of a long walking conversation that vaporizes all the obstacles and I am not disappointed at all.

I have only praises for the entire cast to have played  every shade of their character to near perfection. The trio of Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu, Abhishek Bachchan make their characters shine so bright and believable. Vicky Kaushal is showing Chameleon traits as he stands out noticeably in the movie. Unbelievable portrayal of character completely diverse from his earlier roles. It could have gone so wrong slipped out in many ways but he does’nt let us down at all, he is brilliant with his craft. The striking contrast of a silent personality of an NRI banker, Abhishek’s character is however harder to achieve and would have killed the whole effect of the story if at all the audience felt compelled to choose the opposite side out of boredom for his character. But that doesn’t happen and the Bachchan charisma spell bounds.

Every scene is an unending delight to watch. The movement of the story is flawless with good editing. Gladly no fairy tale, It is a modern day practical story with Love, Lust, Drama, Confusion and lots of brain mush. The music is powerful and Amit Trivedi gives terrific songs with this one, the best bunch this year. I would say Manmarziyaan is Anurag’s dabble into main stream romance which leaves a strong, straight powerful blow. Do not miss out on this one.

Movie Review : Paltan

Bordered with Blood

The history that needs to be told

Movie Paltan

Some movies and content go beyond errors, technicality and novices. The fact that these stories are being told to our generation is an achievement in itself and thus deserves our respect and honor. If we could ever have a voting for our favorite enemy the result would be unanimous of it being the partitioned neighbor as it keeps the border between the two nations burning with fire. Hence, when I get to watch the story of the actual deceitful neighbor I grab the chance.

Paltan tells a compelling story of Nathu La military skirmishes between India and China in 1967. India attempting to barb fence the Indian side of the border.  Nathu La looks to be very a beautiful stretch and that’s the best technical part of the movie. The director of the epic movie (Border) J P Dutta fails to bring out the same magic with Paltan. It falls short in moving the audience. Primarily the movie is too long, dialogues too predictable and big motivational patriotic lectures are so over rated. The cast is extensive but none get the acting part right. The movie is dragged and very slow paced. The enemy which is china’s military are bunch of actors that are laughable, their constant fixated stare throughout the movie is hilarious to watch along with their sarcastic reminder of “hindi-chini bhai bhai”. Nevertheless, the Paltan scenes are accurate and some of the story telling is really good which makes it a pleasant watch.

The few reasons to watch this movie are the fact that we are Indians, and it is definitely a historic tale that needs to be heard out of respect for our army the actual soldiers who keep losing their blood as water for our border safe keeping. 

Movie Review : The Nun

 Comedy from the genre of Horror

The Nun

All that is typical in a horror movie is present in The Nun. Yet it falls short to entertain, thrill, scare us. The good part is the protagonist’s good acting Taissa Farmiga who plays the part of Sister Irene who is gifted of visions providing signs of solutions. She fulfills the part for continuation of storyline for (The Conjuring 2). It is a good watch for some of its comedy parts because of the predictability of the scary scenes, lacking innovation or creativity. I had actually gone to watch a scary movie but ended up watching comedy.

James Wan the Producer and story writer isn’t able to make the movie shine or stand out. According to me The Conjuring first chapter was his best work and so far the most entertaining as it was directed by him. The Nun is directed by Corin Hardy set in a village in Romania, a secluded abby in 1950’s, hence I wonder if all the knee-jurk sequences are old and archaic. It has all the elements like a powerful demon attempting to emerge out of hell on to the earth and trying to find a human body to infest. With the Vatican Church sending an exorcist specialist Father to investigate the castle along with a special psychic to help him. The Father is the weakest character I have ever seen in a horror movie. He unearths nothing great from his knowledge and doesn’t show any authentic or otherwise skill of investigation for such phenomenons, hence no intelligent discoveries, methods are displayed or uncovered. The demon or the Nun isn’t scary, powerful or effective. Her visual doesn’t do anything to your head or heart. 

The development of the story isn’t exciting or anything new, almost predictable. It only creates associations for the audience to understand the beginning parts from both Conjuring movies. Since we do see the demon Valac coming back on earth in the Conjuring 2, I predict a The Nun 2 ought to be made for the sole purpose of story continuation and fill in the blanks. Hopefully it will be better in story development. Watch The Nun once only for the story continuation and if you are a fan like me of the typical horror movies that has a demon, a church and a father as an exorcist. It will still disappoint you, but the comedy will ensure time spent well.

Movie Review : Baaghi 2

Baaghi 2

The thrill for action

Mystery, thriller, romance, dance and action makes a typical Bollywood movie. All elements included in Baaghi 2 takes it a notch higher in fact its actually a preview to how talented Tiger shroff  is. The movie rests truly on his shoulders. As we all are aware that he is capable of incredible action and dance sequences. Somehow he has always been underplayed with movies like  Munna Michale, Flying Jatt etc. With Baaghi 2 Tiger Shroff brings in class action and good acting. He playes an Army Jawan special forces named (Ranveer Pratap Singh urf Ronnie). Thus the military hair cut changes his looks to a dashing young man and his sizzling abs add to his action hero image.

The movie falls short in many domains like direction, editing, screenplay, dialogues. It is quite flawed that one doesn’t feel the connectivity as well as the feeling of watching something new and fresh. Except for the action sequences the script and dialogues are dull nothing that we haven’t  had heard before. Editing puts huge dent as different shots are clearly visible with poor connectivity from one frame to the other. Songs are dispensable and are too close to each other in the first half and why o why! Was there a need to take Jacqueline Fernandes to recreate Madhuri’s “Ek do teen”. The legendary song’s recreation is utterly bosh in terms of music and choreography. They should have put an original item song instead of a recreation. I feel sometimes song recreations in films are just to fasten the movie completion in absence of creativity. Some characters like Prateek Babbar are being wasted. He is a good actor and his negative role should have been enhanced more. The comic timing of Randeep Hooda gives us those laughter moments.

So watch this movie for Tiger shroff and its first half that goes well in creating the mystery and second half for Tiger’s action scenes. He is here and he has arrived. We surely will see him in amazing action movies in future that can blow our mind. Baaghi 2 will leave you asking for more of Tiger Shroff. The challenge while watching it is to ignore the rest. I will surely recommend this movie to go watch in cinema halls.

Movie Review: Raid

Movie Review

Raid 

As the name suggests the movie is about a Raid. An Income Tax Raid on a white house. Set in the 80’s this movie is based on a true story in lucknow of an IRS Deputy Commissioner who raids an MP. A great story telling by Raj Kumar Gupta who is accredited for his direction in movies like (No one killed Jessica, Aamir). Gripping story with good dialogues, acting finesse by Saurabh Shukla and Ajay Devgan. The biggest concern and driver of all economies through out the centuries since the upgrade from the barter system has been the “lagaan” the tax paid for the governance. This movie hence becomes special for the subject matter of honest working of IT department. An IT Deputy commissioner Amay Patnaik currently posted in Lucknow reputed to be uncorrupt and diligent towards his work with deliberate ignorance towards his humongous amount of transfers is played by Ajay Devgan. The raided MP Rameshwar Singh played by Saurabh Shukla exhausts all (Sham, Daam, Dand, Bhedh) avenues to ensure Patnaik fails his task of returning the confiscated tax evaded wealth into Indian govt treasury. The movie keeps you glued to the screen to see what happens next and to find out the person who tips Patnaik (Ajay Devgan) about the hidden stash of cash, gold, jewelry etc.

Watching the movie definitely gives a thrilling experience as it grips and entertains. The simple case of an extended Income tax Raid is smartly made into a 2 hour movie but the story is extremely gripping and performances makes you connect to the characters to always look forward to what next. Both the main actors are so well placed. Both actors Devgan and Shukla have great comic timings and to play the serious roles with the same excellence is extremely enjoyable and commendable.  Raid is a great movie to watch and should not be missed.

Movie Review : Qarib Qarib Single

Qarib Qarib Single

Verdict: QQS is about making yourself happy watching romance, comedy, little drama and lots of laughter in quirky style through a beautiful road trip. Irfan Khan at his best yet again.

It’s a conventionally unconventional movie. With all the story telling this year like Bareily ki Barfi, Shubh Mangal Savdhan etc this movie is a good story telling. The first half of the movie is excellent, the story flows smoothly like water, phrases and depiction of a single woman Jaya Played by Parvathi in 30s single (widow) with a good career living life in need of a companion with just a younger brother studying in a foreign university as family. She is controlled by false sense of proprietary to lead a single life as a widow under society scrutiny. Finally upon dramatic insistence from her friend’s speech of her turning into a revirgin dwells into online dating site to find a good companion from the cluster of perverts. Jaya is drawn to Irfan Khan urff Yogi’s online profile who’s hobby is poetry and has quite unique yet elusive communication style. Upon meeting him she is intrigued by his idiosyncratic, uncanny ways of life.  

An off-hand remark about Yogi’s ex-girlfriends turns into a road trip to meet all of them, and Jaya finds herself tagging along. As they meet the women who made up Yogi’s romantic past, Jaya finds herself drawn to this outlandish, whimsical man. There are many discoveries along the journey for both the chracters- Jaya’s unresolved issues with her friends, Yogi’s half-cooked romances – this is how the story enhances to fun instances and jealousy the final nail to the head to comprehend their heart’s feelings.

We are finally watching these movies and this sort of content is finally up. This movie is all about a tale of modern romance and is absolute pleasure to watch. The movie does take you to wonderful places like Gangtok, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Jaipur etc. Irfan is such a class actor that it will be a shame not to credit his acting skills every single time.  So more reasons to watch this sweet and sour romantic soup of a movie.

Movie Review: American Made

Movie: American Made

Who would have ever thought you could ever get enough of Tom cruise in an Air pilot uniform? The dash! Is back. This time it isn’t as highflying as Top Gun but a more subtle, roller coaster comedy crime thriller fictionalized story of Berry Seal who got into getting in and out drugs, money, weapons between Latin America and the US in the ’80s. Well Narcos, Breaking Bad  and movies on drugs, mafia, and violence have become somewhat the new favorite flavor.

The movie begins with a bored TWA pilot in 1978 who plays with the aircraft switches creating minor turbulence to rattle the passengers to derive some amusement at his flying job. One of those boring days he finds himself being recruited by a CIA operative to gather intel by flying over Latin American base camps and take pictures, which isn’t so easy with his craft being fired on by the resistance military. On one of these trips is where his life takes a turn smuggling drugs for Pablo drugs cartel to US soil. It is his intelligence and wit that makes him successful where others fail and gets away with it. All country politics have gray shades and so does the USA. He is tossed around in various missions sandwiched between the Pablo cartel and the CIA doing jobs for both and making shit load of money in return. He makes tapes of all the things he has done and under what circumstances. All this has to catch up with him somewhere in sometime.

The focus of the movie is more on the politics and back-channel shenanigans of that time. Liman the director has a particular fascination for the mechanics and realpolitik of modern spy craft. The movie is infectious. As is Cruise, who puts the entire film on his shoulders and nicely pulls it through. He pulls through a wife cast in the movie who is not only about 25 years his junior but also looks more like a bored supermodel than an innocent woman who never inquires about the many suitcases full of cash that just keep coming. This is Cruise’s show all the way, and he delivers with a performance that will take you higher than any airplane ever could. You will be entertained through out the movie. It isn’t a typical tom cruiser movie but its damn good story telling and great acting.