Dusvidaniya - Review

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey

Director: Shashant Shah

Rating: ****

The team of Bheja Fry is back and they come up with a simple film which is extraordinary to watch. Vinay Pathak a middle aged man has a habit of writing down "Things to do" list for domestic chores lives a simple middle class life of an accountant in a Mumbai suburb.

A routine check-up with a doctor leaves him stunned. He is diagnosed with a stomach cancer and can live only for 3 months. His inner consience appears before him to question his worthless life of always making lists for others. He decides to make 10 to do things in life which he always wanted.

He puts down his papers at work and teaches his boss a lesson who eats junk food all the time in his cabin . He buys a new car, learns to play guitar, confesses his love for a child hood sweetheart, travels abroad to meet his best friend since school days, patches up with his estranged brother.

The movie is a laugh riot from begining to end and not one bit serious. Interesting scenes are where he meets his childhood sweetheart and confesses his love for her. His dream of travelling abroad and meeting a hooker who befriends him. The dialogues are brilliant and screenplay very engaging.

Vinay Pathak deserves a pat for potraying the character of Amar Kaul. He simply lives the role. Other supporting actors play their parts adquetly.

The movie is for all of us who are living a mechanical life not doing things which we love to do. Its certainly an eye opener. This Vinay Pathak movie is worth the time and money. Please dont miss it, its highly recomended.

Dostana - Review

Cast: Abhishek Bachan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Bobby Deol, Shilpa Shetty
Director: Tarun Mansukhani
Rating: *

A Karan Johar's movie will have all the hype, glitz and glamour and Dostana is no exception. Like all KJ movies, this movie also dissappoints big time with its story, screenplay and melodrama.
Karan's assistant Tarun directs this movie and he has a lot to learn.

Two womanizers Sameer (Abhishek) and Kunal (John Abraham) are being desperate to get a house which is owned by Neha (Priyanka Chopra) in Miami, US. Since Priyanka's aunt prefers only ladies to occupy the house they pretend to be a gay couple to be a tenant there. Why cant they find another good house and bother about pretending to be Gay will remain a mystery.

Every other person in this movie is a gay. Priyanka's ex-boss who is making a transition, the Visa officer who interviews John and Abhishek. The movie makes fun of the gay community throughout the movie. Some scenes are hilarious though especially when Bomman Irani Priyanka's boss who tries to flirt with John and Abhishek. Even scenes involving Kirron Kher who plays Abhishek's mom is hilarious. She is shocked to know her son is gay but later accepts John Abraham as her daughter-in-law and does the traditional customs. John and Abhishek secretly admire Priyanka and want to win her love. Pretending to be gay dosent help their cause !!!

Enter Bobby Deol (Abhimanyu) as Priyanka's new boss the story takes a typical karan johar turn. He is a widower with a child who is fancying Priyanka too.

After all the chaos and masala thrown in the movie ends with all parties happy. John Abraham has exposed the maximum in the movie and walks on his undies most of the time. Priyanka not to be outdone does her fair bit of exposure, her skirts are always above her thighs. If you are fans of John (for the girls) and Priyanka (for the lads) and enjoy crass comedy you can watch this crap. Otherwise stay out of the theaters.

Golmaal Returns - review

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Arshad Warsi, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Arora
Director: Rohit Shetty
Rating: *

There are some golden rules if you want to watch this movie:
1) Leave your brains behind at home
2) Dont even try to understand the story or logic because there is isnt one

The entire movie has senseless comedy thrown in at regular intervals. Lucky (Tushar Kapoor) is the scene stealer who evokes a few laughs. He is the brother-in-law of Gopal(Ajay Devgan) whose wife Ekta(Kareena Kapoor) is a big fan of TV seriels. She suspects her husband Ajay Devgan of being unfaitful to her as it appears on seriels.
Ajay Devgan saves Meera (Celina Jaitley) from rogues one night and takes her to the company yatch for the night because their cars dont start. Only in Hindi movies can you expect this scene, cant she take a cab or auto home? Ajay tells his wife he was at his friends and gives an imaginary address and name which turns out to be true. Meanwhile Ajay's team mate in office is killed and the cop Madhav (Arshad Warsi) who is seeing Ajay Devgan's sister Esha (Amrita Arora) suspects Ajay of murdering him. To clear his name and get an alibi Ajay should find the girl who spent the night with him without his wife Kareena knowing about it. Enter Shreyas Talpadi as Ajay's assistant who adds to the confusion. He tries to help Ajay find the girl Meera who happens to be his very own girl friend !!!

You will start pulling your hair with frustration at so many characters and sub-plots in the movie. Its also taking a dig at seriel director Ekta Kapoor and movies like "tashan".

Every hindi movie has a character speaking in tamil these days. This time it is Celina Jaitley and her south indian family. Wish they can get the diction right or have someone else dub the tamil dialogues.

If you follow the set of rules mentioned at the begining of this review, you can sit through this movie. You will do yourself a favour by keeping off the theater.

Fashion - Review

Cast: Mugdha Godse, Priyanka Chopra, Kangna Ranaut, Arbaaz Khan
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Rating: ***

Director Madhur Bhandarkar has made some memorable movies like Page 3 and Chandni Bar and the expectations were quite high for his take on the Fashion industry in India. Sadly he dosent totally live up to the high expectations of the audiences.

Meghna (Priyanka Chopra) the lead star defies her parents and moves to Mumbai from Chandigarh to pursue her dream of becoming a model. She meets a gay friend who is an assistant designer who helps her. How she makes the right contacts at the right time remains a puzzle.. she just meets them!!

Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) a top model is in shambles with her cocaine and drinking habit. She is replaced by Priyanka who catches the attention of Abhijeet Sareen (Arbaaz Khan) the fashion mogul who runs fashion magazines, ad agencies etc. Priyanka soon becomes a top model but looses her boy friend and friends because of work pressure and her attitude. She also allows herself to be used by Arbaaz Khan to gain stardom but throws tantrum after she gets pregnant by him.

The movie depicts all girl models as victims in the fashion industry. Most fashion designers are gay men, do they get tired of seeing girls all the time?? Some of the scenes like Kangana on the streets and wardrobe malfunction are inspired from real life. The fashion industry is a dirty world behind all the glitz and glamour. This is the message Madhur liked to show in this movie. Sadly he dosent show how the designs are made and brought out to the industry.

Good performances by all the stars especially Priyanka. The director would have done much better had he trimmed the movie to 90 mins. At 3 hours it drags way too much in the second half. Go without any expectations, you will not be too disappointed with this movie.

Hello - Review

Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sharman Joshi, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora, Gul Panag, Sharat Saxena, Dalip Tahil
Director: Atul Agnihotri
Rating: ***

Hello is a pure original of Chetan Bhagat's novel and hence has set high expectations when it was released. The director to a great extent has managed to pull it off. Its not easy to translate a book into a movie for Indian audiences. The movie depicts convincingly the complex lives of people working in call centres. The movie happens at one fine night in a call center.

The plot is simple, it revolves around 6 people working together. The work culture and atmosphere bonds them together as a team. Shyam (Sharman Joshi) is desperate to grow in his career to meet the expectations of his girl friend Priyanka (Gul Panag). Priyanka's mom though wants her to marry a well settled NRI. Radhika (Amrita Arora) is unable to tolerate her demanding mother-in-law. Vroom (Sohail Khan) is a happy go lucky person who woos Esha (Isha Koppikar). Esha is an aspiring model who can never meet success. Military uncle (Sharat Saxena) is a lonely retired colonel who is missing his children and grandchildren who are away in US.

Bakshi (Dalip Tahil) a mean manager wants to downsize his team following requests from his boss in US. This makes everyone panic in the team and they are frustrated with their lives. And then that night God calls them on Shyam's mobile. God tells them how to deal with their lives. For people who dont believe in God and expecting logic there is another version of military uncle providing the words of wisdom. Strengthened from the words they go about fixing their problems and eventually choose more fulfilling careers they like.
The entire story is narrated by Katrina to Salma in an Airport. They make guest appearences.

The movie has some hilarious moments when call centre representatives deal with their American customers. The lead stars Sharman and Gul Panag are impressive. Songs could have been avoided as it affects the pace of the movie.

Its definitely a enjoyable movie and worth a watch. Lets look forward to more movies from well written novels following the success of The Namesake and Hello

Kidnap - review

Cast: Imran Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Minissha Lamba, Vidya Malvade
Director: Sanjay Gadhvi
Rating: *

There are some movies which can be so horribly made you want to walk out of the theater within the first 20 mins. Sanjay Gadhvi's Kidnap is one such movie. Imran Khan, Sanjay Dutt and impressive promos of the movie about being a suspense thriller create enough hype to go watch the movie but it falls flat. How on earth did Imran Khan and Sanjay Dutt choose such a flawed script will remain a mystery.

Sonia (Minissha Lamba) is kidnapped by Imran Khan (Kabir) but not for ransom money. He wants to take revenge on her father Vikrant Raina (Sanjay Dutt) who is one of the richest men in the country. Vikrant and his wife Mallika (Vidya Malvade) are divorced. She is forced to contact him as per the kidnappers ultimatum. Vidya Malvade of Chak De fame is gorgeous and looks much younger than her daughter Minissha Lamba in the movie. Such a poor casting from the director.

There so many flaws in this movie and there it not enough space to type even half of them here. Imagine this, Minissha Lamba is asked to speak to her dad to show she is alive and she starts getting senti.. "Pappa how are you doing? where were you all these years.. i miss you so much.."
Minissha Lamba really gets on your nerves. She cant act for nuts. All we see is her cleavage and thighs through out the movie but once she opens her mouth she is a complete turn off. Wonder how she managed to pack all the designer skirts and tops when she was kidnapped, she wears one each day despite being held captive. If skin show from the heroine is not enough, the director seems to have extracted glamour from even her mom!!!

Imran Khan wants revenge on Sanjay Dutt and asks him to do silly stuff (aka Die Hard) to set her daughter free. Reaching a railyway station in 20 mins, stealing his rivals money, releasing the hero's friend from prison. Sanjay Dutt becomes a James Bond and does everthing expected (funny to watch the action scenes). You expect a compelling reason for Imran Khan to hate Sanjay Dutt so much to do all this but after you listen to the flashback you get even more irritated. Now and then Minissha breaks into a song and dance with Imran. Movie ends when Imran decides to forgive Sanjay after teaching him a lesson. He eventually becomes a software engineer later !!!!!! why is bollywood so obsessed with software engineers these days? phew! everyone in the theater gets relieved when the movie gets over.

A script which lacks depth, pathetic performances especially the heroine, unimpressive lead stars and a very bad screen play. Even one star is too generous of me for this crap. Stay away from this movie even if you get free tickets, its pure torture. For fans of Imran or Sanjay, trust me you will feel sorry for them.

A Wednesday - Review

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Deepal Shaw, Amir Bashir
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: ****

Lots of movies based on terrorism these days. You would have a sense of deja-vu when you are considering to watch this movie. After Mumbai Meri Jaan comes another movie based on bomb blasts. After watching this movie directed by Neeraj Pandey you will not regret spending your time and money.

Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher two stalwarts of bollywood bring top notch performances which are gripping till the very end. Hindi cinema sadly has not given its due to Naseer or Anupam.

The Mumbai Police Commissioner, Prakash Rathod (played by Anupam Kher) gets an annoymous call from Naseer. Will the militants be set free? Will the bombs explode? This forms the rest of the movie. A nail biting suspense thriller with twists and turns throughout the movie.
No songs, no dancing, no romance, no melodrama, no cliched comedy, no cheap skin show or heroism. Can a low budget movie sans all this become a huge hit in the metros and multiplexes? Neeraj Pandey has proved it with " A Wednesday".

I am not giving anything away with this movie because it will spoil the suspense. Please dont miss this movie atleast for the performance of Anupam and Naseer who live their roles.

What happens in Vegas - Review

Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz
Director: Tom Vaughan
Rating: **

If you are looking at a great romantic comedy you will be totally dissapointed with this one.
Ashton Kutcher (Jack Fuller) gets fired from his dad's firm because he is very bad at his job. Cameron Diaz (Joy) gets dumped by her boyfriend when she is trying to throw him a surprise birthday party. They both decide to take a break and go to Vegas with their friends where they accidently bump into each other.

After an evening of wild partying and drinking they get married. They discover they are married only when they get up the next day with a hang over. They realize they have been stupid and decide to seek divorce but accidently Ashton throws Cameron's coin in a casino and wins a $ 300,000 jackpot.

Now both fight for their share of the prize money which annoys the Judge who is hearing their divorce case. The judge decides to teach them both a lesson and orders them to live together for 6 months and work on their marriage through a marriage counseller. If they dont live together all the prize money would be frozen.

It becomes a cat and mouse game from here where both of them try to drive each other crazy. The movie is funny in parts but also embarrasing and gross at times. Ashton a typical unhygenic bachelor and Cameron a typical girl spending hours in the wash room.

The final court room scene forms the climax where you would know who gets the money and if they will fall in love.

If you decide to watch this movie then go without any expectations, you may like some of the jokes. If you are a classic romantic comedy fan, give this one a slip

Mumbai Meri Jaan - Review

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan, Irfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon
Direction: Nishikant Kamat
Rating: ****

Mumbai Meri Jaan explores the emotions of ordinary people on the aftermath of July 7 bomb blasts in Mumbai which killed over 50 people commuting in the metro trains. The timing of the movie is perfect as people are still recovering from numerous blasts across the country in the past few months. The movie does not focus on terrorism or the terrorists but how commoners would behave in a traumatic situation.

The movie revolves around 5 characters. Madhavan an environment conscious employee of a MNC who prefers travelling by trains than a car, Soha Ali Khan a journalist from the electronic media, Irfan Khan a tea seller on the railway stations, Kay kay menon an unemployed youth and Paresh Rawal a police constable who is on the verge of retirement.

Madhavan is shaken when he narrowly escapes from being a blast victim. Soha ali khan is traumatised further when her own news channel tries to sensationalize her grief on TV. Irfan Khan takes revenge on citizens who humiliate him. Kay Kay menon feels he should turn an investigator chasing suspicious muslim youths. The police constable Paresh Rawal mentoring his junior associate to handle pressure.

The director brings on screen the emotional trauma all the characters go through in simple and realistic situations. There is no cliched scene or cinematic dialogues throughout the film.
The most memorable character is played by Paresh Rawal as a level headed constable. Be it reasoning with Kay Kay Menon or the emotional farewell speech on his last day, Paresh is at his best and strikes a chord.

The entire city without any religious or regional barrier mourn for the blast victims in bon hommie during the climax of the film. Its the spirit of Mumbai that ultimately prevails.
For director Nishikant Kamat of Dombivili Fast(Marathi) and Evano Oruvan(Tamil) fame its another feather in his cap. Reviewers in CNN IBN and NDTV have given only 2 or 3 stars probably because of the scenes that take a dig at them in the movie. I would give it 4 stars for the impeccable narrative style of the director. Dont miss this movie thinking its a serious one, its defintely worth the money

Rock on - review

Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny, Prachi Desai, Shahana Goswami
Rating: ****

Movies which make you nostalgic and connect you with your past have always been appreciated by the audience. While some movies go overboard with the campus musings, some are packaged so well that people simply fall in love with the movie.
The debutant director's Rock-on is one such movie where people can go back in memory lane and relate with their campus lives.

For director tuned actor Farhan Akhtar, this is a perfect launching pad for an acting career and he dosent dissapoint you one bit with his performance.

There has been many movies with a group of four to five friends having a re-union after many years. What engages rock-on is the common passion these 4 friends share for music and their band Magik which failed to take off.

Aditya Shroff (Farhan) works for a leading MNC, killer drummer (Purab Kohli) takes over his dad's jewellery business. Rob (Luke Kenny) the keyboard player works with Anu Malik on jingles and the lead guitarist Joe (Arjun Rampal) plays guitar in parties and teaches kids part time. His nagging wife Debey (Shahana Goswami) looks after the family fish business.

Aditya Shroff's wife Shakshi (Prachi desai) finds their relationship lacking love and clueless about her husband's un-emphatic behaviour. Farhan Akthar essays the role well as a lost soul going about his mechanical work style. Aditya's wife encounters KD in his showroom and discovers her husband's past life and about his stint with a rock band. She also discovers the photos and video of his friends in their closet. All of them have funny moustaches, beard and hair as rock stars. Shakshi tries to arrange a re-union with his friends hoping to give his life back.

The rest of the movie unfolds on what happened in the past that leads to their break-up and Why Aditya isolates himself from his friends. However its not very clear why he had to break-up with his girl friend for no fault of hers.
The movie goes back and forth on the lead charaters, their rock band magik, their failure and their joy. They eventually re-unite and decide to give their last shot for their band but there are different priorities in their lives now which makes it difficult.

Joe and Debbie's characters struggling to live a decent life with their income is etched very well. Debbie is impressive as a frustrated wife hating their fish business far from being a stylist she once wanted to be. She wants Joe to take up a lucrative career than to re-join a band that failed 10 years back because of their differences.

Some of the scenes about the brain tumour could have been avoided. It has been repeated in far too many movies about one friend dying among the four. The last scene about the future was interesting.

Most of the songs (6 sung by Farhan Akhtar) are good and well picturised which creates the tempo throughout the film. Dialogues and performances from the lead artistes make it a very engaging movie.

Indian movies are getting better by the day and there is a clear market segmentation. There is new genre of multiplex movies which dare to experiment with the scripts. Rock on is definitely different from the run of the mill movies and can make a perfect weekend !