Dabangg 2, this one surely misses the bang

Few questions need to be discussed before going to watch Dabangg2.

Q:Is Dabangg worth enough to be sequelled?
 Ans: Ofcourse. It has created one of the most iconic character on screen "Chulbul Pandey". Some unique style quotent, a rustic heroine and ofcourse some chart buster music. And of course the box office collection. Enough points to make a sequel.

Q:First part was by a debutant and this one also. Does that make any difference as long as Salman is there?
Ans:Before Dabangg Abhinav  was also a debutant. Only X factor could be he's the brother of Anurag Kashyap.:) kidding!!!!ofcrz. But Dabangg  shows immense potential that Abhinav has. Unlike his bother he's very massy with his creative touch.

When it comes to Arbaz he has a not so impressive acting career.He never shows any creativity towards his script/role selection. But Arbaz was the one who acknowledged Dabang script and Abhinav's talent after the later being rejected by number of makers. Hence still there is some hope.

Q:Was the promo sufficient enough to lighten my wallet?

DAVID, DA VIsually Distinct

When your first film has created so much buzz  than  expectation are always high from your second film. In recent year the new breed directors have brought  the much needed cinematic revolution. They include people like Shimit Amin, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kgti, and many more. Bijoy Nambiar is also one among them. His fisrt film Shaitaan was a crime thriller which was about a group of rich spoiled brad who went on commit a crime and finally a series of events which eventually turned their world upside down. This time he comes up with story of three people in three different geography, there different time era but a same name “David”, that’s the name of the movie.

Neil Nitin Mukesh, the first David is a gangstar in London somewhere during 1975. He has his GodFather Iqbal Ghuney played by “” about whome he later discovers a not so pleasant past.  The Second Davod “Vinay Virmani” a wannabe guitarist who want to make it bog in the world of music , but later found hos world got shaken after his family went through a religious confrontation. Third and final David played by Vikram is a drunken Goan who is considered to be “manhus” as his fiency ditched him on the day of his wedding and he finaly discovers his love of life in his bestfriend’s fiency.  The film revolves around how these three deals with their respective situation and whether they succeed/failed to come out of it.

Coming to the performance section all three main actors have no confusion regarding thir individual character and id a complete justice to it. Neil as the London based gangstrar has brought the required elegance and depth through his performance. Vinay who is just one film old never lets down has potreyed whis part with the right amount of energy and sincerity. Vikram who is asuper star down south but not a big name in bollywood leaves no stone un turn to make the audience laugh and cry with him. If you ask me to choose a favourite than its very difficult to select one. But it’s the character and Vikram’s [erformance which gives him an edge over the other. By saying that I have no intention to bring down the work of others. Its just the writing which keeps Vikram one place above. Other supporting cast like Nasser, Tabu, Lara, Satish Kaushik has played their part with equal brilliance.

When you have a story like this to tell there is tremendous responsibility and challenge lying before you inorder -to give equal and fair treatment with each of the subplot and  at the same  make sure the audience is not goofing up or at-least not getting bored. And here the screenplay writer has done a brilliant job in order to ensure all the above parameters are properly taken care of. In London it captures the style, elegance, class of the Gangstar family, in Mumbai the Chrstian family especially that of Vinay Virmani , their life during the pre and post phase of the incedent. Where these two parts are mostly intense the Goa chapter is bit light the innovative writing infuses the humour with out compromising the required emoption.  Also the the juggling between different set up is woven so cleverly that you hardly feel of getting dis-connected.. Easily it is one of the best script written in bollywood.

The technical department has equally complemented the writers. Cinemartography by “”, “”, “” is of top notch. The I guess the three have captured three different era individually. The London episode is framed with blend of dark and light shade.Most of the Mumbai is captured in a not so brighter canvas where as Goa is colur ful. When it comes to gelling the three different world and maintain the pace editor Sreekar Prasad deserves ful mark for the way he has edited the entire film. The music director also has understood the different setup and blend the music for different mood.

Las but not the least the man who has achieved this feat getting the best work from his team, understanding either way the film could go and thus  never fails to maintain the bvalance between everything,  director Bijoy Nambiar . He is the next big thing in bollywood.

In short David is a film no movie lover should dare of missing. It might not be a master piece but surely a piece whose master has made sure you will have a good time and also explore a new dimension of Indian cinema.

Race2, Unpredictably Predictable

A suspense thriller is not just about hiding the truth at one time and revealing it later.
But it also has to take care of how shocking that truth is and the way you are exposing it.
On this note Race has beautifully en-cashed on this theory where as the second installment only deals with the first point and misses the later. And this is where a film that is full on style and glamor quotient, relying much on cleavage and muscles show falls badly in brain power.

Race 2 is the story of Ranvir played by Saif who is on mission to strike a deal with Aarman Mallik played by muscular John which can turn out to be a deal of their life and a big money spinner. To get Aarman's attention he takes the help of Robert Decosta(Anil Kapoor). Then comes Depika who is Arman's sister and his partner, Jaquline (John's love intereset) . There is Amisha Patel also who's has replaced Smaeera Reddy as Anil's secretary whose only job is to seduce his Boss. As the story progresses with unfolding the real intention of each characters, love-hate-betryal, song-dance sequence and couple of action scenes. Sounds like having all ingrediants of a masala port boiler this one has serious lacking of a sincere effort to make it at per with its earlier franchaise if not more.

Coming to the script writer Sheeraz Ahmad has founded his base on the template of Race. Similar kind of unpredictibility, scenes and confrontation among the actors. Those who are familiar with earlier Abbas Mustan flicks will find no time in guessing what is going to happen next. There is a scene where Deepika asks Saif to revisit their last one night stand and they headed towards the hotel. On the way they realised there is a bomb planted which follows a daredelivery by Saif and finally they got rid of it. This eventually led to open another suspense. Here just for the shake of creating suspense the entire scene is ployed and it has no relation with the primary narrative. In short it seems like the makers has just intended to encash the success of Race and they have tried to create everything similar to it in Race 2.

All the actors have given decent performances in their limitation. But it is Saif who stands out among the crowd. His body language has the needed style and arrogance of a tycoon. John has got the body some times miss the language. At some instances he appears very mechanical. Depika has less screen space than Jaqline but both have done an un-complainable job. Anil Kapoor provides the require humour. For Amisha Patel its neither good nor bad. Other suposring cast have also delivered their job. Its just the script which can not elevate things from ok to good.

Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola:An audience point of view

I must say Vishal Bharadwaj has an huge knowledge base. He knows what it takes to make a fertile land barren. He knows what medical sufferings a drunker has to under gone once he quits drinking all of  a sudden. He also has touched upon Maoist, Split personality and many more. He too has composed some beautiful numbers for the film, made sure all his technical craftsman and actors delivered more than a decent job and some even excellent. In short VB as a director is nothing less than a genius. But sometimes being over ambitious and getting carried away results to be spoiler and that's exactly is the irony with MKBKM.
A brilliant first half is marred due to an un-filthy second half.

To start with "Matru Ki..." central idea is to highlight the exploitation that the poor in India are exposed to in the name of modernization which in truth is actually the propaganda created by some rich and powerful to fulfill their dreams. It has also some sub plots like an youth graduated from JNU wants to bring revolution at ground level, maoist theory, family and human relation being part of business deal etc..
Vishal Bhradwaj aestheticism and skill to catch the right nerve makes this onetime look like a dark boring concept much enjoyable with the humorous touch. VB didn't waste time and establishes the plot from the word GO. With some fine performances, nicely written and executed scenes funny dialogues its a joyride through the entire first half. Though I find it was slightly disconnected from the main story but as long as I am enjoying I don't mind.

Then comes the second half and I find the director is on the same page with my thought. He also realizes he's missing the track and all of a sudden shifted his focus to tell his story in the stipulated time frame of second half. He has to deal with how the baddies are up and run for their devil wish and the good one to to save their ass,the lovers realizing feelings for each other, father goes through a mind shift and all these happening in a rocketing speed and that to with a theatrical/nukkad style way of story telling. There are some comic relief in between but that didn't save the day.

Its not like VB has not focused on this part but its just the way he deals with it. He might find it right in his own way but I am sure once he sees the final print he'll realize where exactly he missed the train. Had it been more intelligent and supervised this film would sure be the first gem of the year. But it surely is not and VB is the one to blame for it.

Coming to the performances full marks for Imran Khan's look and the way he carries it with his body language. But his dialogue delivery and lack of sincerity in-order to have a feel of  the Hariayanvi character makes his performance half backed but its not bad at all, even some may find it good. Anushka is decent but she hasn't dome anything that we haven't seen in past. She seems like getting type-casted. Prateek Babbar is a good revelation and the director has managed to pull a restrained performance from him. Shabana Azmi though as usual has done her home work well but its the director who some times missed to give her the right notes.

A big applause for this supremely talented actor "Pankaj Kapoor". There is not a single moment where he has not sign. Give him just one line and he makes sure that he'll out-sign evryone. Thats the spark this actor has  and its Mr Kapoor who steals the show with a marvic performance. The more I say the more it becomes stereotypes as I am falling sort for vocabs. Hence watch this one for Pankaj Kapoor.

As a music director Vishal has probved his meatle again. He knows how to blend his style to the Hariyanvi rustic setup. As said the writer duo Vishal along with Ishqia director Abhishek Choubey has manged to indulge some inspired writing but in the later part they just failed to do so. Cinematography and editing has nothing to complain about.

Overall It was an highly imaginative plot which suffered due to an equally un-imaginative writing in the later part. But surely its an one time watch.

English Vinglish, the year's best movie

All the year i was wondering, no film for which i could say it was just awesome. And finally I saw English Vinglish. Last year it was Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara. Don't exactly remember which was the best in the year before it and so on.. This year rather was supposed to be showering of good cinemas as people like Anurag Kashyap,Dibakar Banerjee,Reema Kagti with Aamir Khan ,Yash Chopra, Kabir Khan had booked the theaters with their directorial venture. Some were decent but most were disappointing. But it was the new faces who took the audience surprise by their unique story telling and some unconventional plot. Like Sujoy Ghosh in Kahani,Sujit Sorcar in Vicky Doner, Umesh Shukla for OMG and Gauri Shinde for English Vinglish. But the most stand out performer was English Vinglish. It was cinema at its best so far and I happened to be fortunate enough to see it before the year ends.

There are three 's' which stands tall for this film and cemented its position among films those were both critically and commercially appreciated with relying much upon the critics baisness or star power.
These are "Script", "Sridevi" and "Shinde'.

The Sciprt establishes each of the character such that any one can relate to it be it the spanish student in the English class "Ebba" the chubby woman who has the urge to fall a sleep any where any time and start snoring.It wasnt monotonous catering only to the Sashi's (name of the character played by Sridevi)adventure to raise her dignity amomg her loved ones. Though this was the plot but it was wooven in such a way that every middle class woman not so fluent in English, trying to raise her kids so that they can get best in society will identify he trauma Sashi goes through.

Film starts with an upper middle class family in Mumbai, the Goodboley family. Sashi Goodboley(Sridevi) is a the middle aged wife of Satish who is a corporate employee with two kids and a mother in law. Sashi apart for this family has also has a passion for cooking and she is well known for her laddoo. She is an enterpreanuer and her laddo business is well patronised among other mumbai families. though being appreciated for her cooking she is equally or more looked down upon by her family memebers, espesially her husaband and daughter. There are scenes where she is teased by both for pronouncing Jazz as Jhass, for not beng able to talk in English to the English teacher and many other instances. Now comes a point where she has to fly to US for her niece (sister's daughter) wedding; She has to fly before hand to help her daughter as her family would be doing so after few weeks of her take off. After landing in US she was well received by her sister and family. She was amazed to see how her sister has versed her shelf in the situation and how fluent she is in English. She was having a good time away from her home but again the ghost of English chased her and she found her self in an embarrasing situation when she was baffled with her English while placing an order in an resturant. this particular scene is written and executed in such a  way that it will evoke evoke laughter for a few sec and right after force you to shed some tear from your eyes. Such is the powerful the script and the genious of Sridevi to enact the scene and not to forget the director in having a complete control over everything. than Sashi decide to take English speaking course and what follows after that is a perfect blend of humour, emotion and sense of achievement for Sashi.

First time director Gauri Shinde shows no signs of being a debutant and rather outshine so many established faces/ i have heard her saying in one of the interview that she is a better director than her hubby Balki ( the man behind Paa, Chini kum and producer of English Vinglish). I totally agree with her. In none of the scene she seems to be carried away by the flow and ends up injecting un-necessery drama. Rather she makes sure that its a fight of an woomen and and like sashi the film never gives up. it'll hold your attentiion and make you gled to your seat which explain Shinde's brilliance as a story tellr. Shinde also has extracted some fine work from all her technical department. "Lakshman Uttakar" the man dealing with camera captures the beauty of both mumbai as well as US with elegance. Amit trivedi has composed some fine tunes. i would like to mention here that Gauri Shinde seems to have a better ear for music as compared to Balki.

Coming to performance Sridevi steals the show with a thunderous act. Her being in the film explains her sensibility in choosing the right script for a come back and the sharpness she still has in her acting. Adil Hussain as the typical husband with an inferiority look for his wife, the girl playing the daughter and the list goes on. a special mention for "Mehdi Nebbou" a french chief who has a soft corner for married Sashi. mebbou knows his limitation that he's not the hero but never le you think that he's just another actor.

To sum it up full marks to Gauri Shinde for writing such a script which addresses the day to day issue our mother,aunty or sisters are facing for not being able to have a fluent English though they are the backbone of every Indian family. English Vinglish is a perfect film which answers question of getting an unique script with out referring south or for that matter hollywood. Dont miss this

Nothing just like that

I was thinking of writing since few years(not even remembered how many years exactly).But my nature didn't allow me to start. My nature,well its something like let this be happen then I'll start,today I don't have sufficient material so will do on some other day,not now mood nahin hai and all that.

There is a very good English proverb:when you wait for everything to be ready,absolutely everything you can never start.And same happened to me. then why today? Simple, coz I am not waiting for everything. Even i don't have anything specific to write and thus the "Title". I am even quite unsure whether anyone would ever care to read this. Well let me justify my stand on this:"i am writing for myself and not for anyone else...'.Arrogant?

hmmmm......thinking of what to write next? whether anything to write or shall stop with this?First blog after all?One more excuse...

Its Sunday and i have nothing much to do.So thought lets solve some aptitude problem.then i thought of reading something about CLR(common language runtime,the heart of .net) but then started this blog.

What? What exactly I am trying to say?As i said i have nothing to write.