Movie Review – Satya

A coveted started to the world of raw gangster films

Somehow I completed watching the Gangster trilogy of Ram Gopal Varma with enough time between films, so that I could appreciate each by its own without the influence of other films. Guess, even though all the films treaded on the same universe, one would be able to watch each film separately and still appreciate it. May be it’s because he didn’t want to create a film making style unique but it’s just the way he knew to make, which became unique. Having watched Company and D, too, I couldn’t call Satya as overwhelming favorite but may be a wee bit better made than the two. But for me, it’s still D, which was the best, the rawness was truly invigorating.

Satya starts in a typical fashion, like any of his previous films. Satya (J. D. Chakravarthy) is a youngster new to Mumbai to get a job. May be J. D. Chakravarthy wasn’t as famous back then. Ram Gopal Varma could shoot him in public view and he does a great job. It’s not a surprise that bad things would happen to the protagonist and he’d raise to power. It’s just an eventual in a RGV’s gangster flick. May be because I watched the other two films, the rawness didn’t impact me.

When compared to the other two films of the trilogy, this was direct. May be a bit more impactful because it was focused on the storyline without any self-righteousness. But what’s an RGV film without self-righteousness. Even though there is a sense of feeling that RGV breaks morality issues through his characters. Isn’t he also trying to showcase morality in the hardest possible way. Generally in a movie where the hero dies, we at least root for him till the end but in his films, we tend to maintain distance from the hero right from the start because we know it’s always going to be a problem if we get into the world of protagonist.

Just like Mysskin, to an extent Selvaraghavan, Ram Gopal Varma too doesn’t let actors a complete freedom to act or at least doesn’t showcase them in a filmy way but J. D. Chakravarthy suited his role to Tee. With his sunken tired eyes, he looks like a perfect protagonist of Ram Gopal Varma film. When I watched D, I thought none could better Randeep Honda as a RGV protagonist but J. D. Chakravarthy looked like he was born for it. All these alpha directors have problem with actors who carry a certain bit of aura around them. Like how Mohanlal, who even though was in RGV’s world, still had certain isms of Mohanlal. They don’t understand how much they contribute to the movie by making viewers enjoy that. May be their ego is too big for it or they just don’t want to spoil the environment they’re creating by actors who’re bigger than that. This is where the Manoj Bajpayee’s and Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s play the perfect foil for any such films.

In spite of the fact that the actor has to be in a certain state, look how charming Urmila Matondkar is in this film. She plays the perfect ‘good person’ in this evil film. You can’t help but fall in love with Vidya, in fact you love her so much that you don’t want her to love Satya. To be honest, throughout I couldn’t root for Satya. For some reason, I felt distanced from him. I could even root for Bhiku (Manoj Bajpayee) for he was a simple guy. But Satya without even knowing him or even after knowing him always felt distant to me.

The Urmila I know is the Urmila I had seen from the songs of ‘Rangeela’. Seeing her acting in ‘Satya’ I thought ‘Satya’ had released first and wanted to see how she rose to prominence from ‘Satya’ to ‘Rangeela’. But to know that ‘Rangeela’ in fact came prior to ‘Satya’ and she was already prominent, only grew my respect towards her more. That’s one more reason to watch ‘Rangeela’. Still, the main reason would be how he got work out of Rahman. It’s a curious combination, given that RGV strives for rawness and Rahman’s sounds are mostly polished.

Say what may, RGV would always remain an interesting guy to watch out for.

Movie Review – Company

Prim and Proper, boon or bane?

It was part of my reverse Gangster trilogy of RGV. ‘D’ happened by chance and ‘Company’ was by choice. Even though I did the mistake of watching the last film of trilogy first, I didn’t want to spoil the best film by watching second. Let me save the best for the last. Anyways both ‘D’ and ‘Company’ would work as a standalone film. ‘Company’ felt lot more proper than ‘D’ but it’s not a compliment. Anyways how can you hate a film when you have Mohanlal with such eclectic charm?

The film has typical RGV moments but as much as I wanted to forget ‘D’ and watch ‘Company’ as a fresh film by watching a number of films in between, it didn’t help because I was immediately transported to RGV’s world. Every time I see his film and know about his off screen persona, I can’t help but think about how wonderful it would be to make a film of him.

Coming back to the comparison, even though ‘Company’ feels like a far more proper film than ‘D’, the rawness was slightly missing. Unfortunately as I have seen in the reverse, it was more appalling. But look at the beauty and the genius of RGV. To have made the movies in the chronological order would have been a far more achievable dream but to make a prequel and make it look raw was a tougher job. Even with a film as great as a Godfather 2, the Don Corleone flashback scenes look fancy at places but here, ‘D’ was total raw. I could appreciate it better after watching ‘Company’

Company starts with ‘Chandu’ (Vivek Oberoi) joining the Mumbai underworld and developing a camaraderie with Malik (Ajay Devgan), the leader of the gang. The actors as usual are RGV’s caricatures, which takes some time to settle but if you really want to a make a film in this style, after some years, as a period flick, it might be a lovely setting. Something which Mani Ratnam couldn’t achieve in ‘Aayutha Ezhutu’/ ‘Yuva’, where the characters would feel fabricated and glossy in spite of trying to look as local as possible. Here, it happens quite nonchalantly. Still the actors need to understand the world of RGV, otherwise, they don’t set in properly. Even in this movie Ajay Devgan wasn’t convincing, Vivek Oberoi in his non don, vulnerable parts was lovely but couldn’t emulate the same when he raises to the power. The ladies Saroja (Manisha Koirala), Kannu (Antara Mali) and Ranibai (Seema Biswas) to a great job, in the same ascending order.

It’s a film which could have faltered in the second half but RGV’s careful injection of double cross along with human emotions were superbly done, which raises doubts in us regarding what’s what. In fact it’d be curious to know whether the director himself could differentiate between the double cross and chance happenings. That’s how complicated the plot was.

It’d be a wholesome experience to edit a RGV film I guess, to get into the mind of director and know what he really wants. Even the songs would be cut differently and mostly overpowering. It would be impossible to really like songs from RGV’s film. That makes me want to watch ‘Rangeela’ which was like a breath of fresh air, even now. That’s due to the terrific chemistry between two opposite poles, Rahman and RGV.

Having said everything, if you want one sole reason to watch ‘Company’, it’s Mohanlal. Of course there are far greater films of Mohanlal but if there is an actor in this film who owns a scene it’s Mohanlal. How well can this man adapt to a film which comes from different sensibilities, in a different language. In fact his carefully uttered Hindi gives a feel of how it’d be if Dumbledore had been a villain. There are scenes were we feel more threatened by him rather than the gangsters. In ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ he introduces himself as I.G.R Maraar, it makes us grin just by hearing his name, it’s something unexplainable, yet lovely. It’s the same vibe which he gives here too when he gets introduced as Veerappalli Srinivasan, an unfathomable Malayali.

Movie Review – Dum Laga Ke Haisha

An Ayushmann Khurrana normalcy

On the surface level, it’s yet another Ayushmann Khurrana genre movie but yet again he surprises and makes us wonder how he sustains in this genre for so long. Eventually it has to break but for now it’s lasting and let’s enjoy that. An additional advantage for this movie is that he has underplayed his character and there are a string of characters around him, who are brilliant. Add to it, it has a terrific Bhumi Padekar, who doesn’t do a single scene wrong. It’s one of the movies which even when people walk by, they’ll sit and watch till completion. My house was a proof to it.

The film is set in 1995, where Prem Prakash Tiwari (Ayushmann Khurrana) runs a cassette shop. As it was a period flick, it’s easy to reminiscent the past and make it romatic and that’s what they do in the opening sequence. Generally the mistake that filmmakers do for such sequences are they try to find a connect between such nostalgic sequence with the main storyline, here it’s about the heroines weight, but luckily in this film it doesn’t happen so. It plainly shows Prem’s love for Kumar Sanu and nothing over the top was done, in fact it was nice to see a stoppage of the song in between. Wish I had known those songs, it would have felt even better. Even though it was done well, just imagine the same happening in a Malayalam film with Fahadh Faasil in it, it’d have been even more special. But that’s just me, whatever done here was good enough.

I wasn’t aware that it was Bhumi Padekar’s debut. I thought she would have put up weight for the movie after a couple of movies. To take up this role as debut needs a lot of confidence, because it’s easy to be typecast and also be rejected for looks. In addition to the role, she does a beautiful job in the acting department too. There wasn’t a single scene where she begs for sympathy. Have to give credit to the director, Sharat Katariya, for portraying such a genuine character and not make a melodramatic movie.

There were few aspects apart from these, which was done well too, like how Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar) gets angry knowing Prem’s intention of not wanting to show her to friends and how Prem feels guilty for the same. But it doesn’t elongate into a dramatic sequence, it ends then and there. Sandhya is not a girl who sits and whines. No matter how much she gets body shamed, by her extended family, Nain Tara (Sheeba Chaddha) and her brother, she doesn’t retaliate but just passes by. Post the scenes, she doesn’t sit and sulk do, she knows her body and just goes on with the random work. Even the scene where she slaps Prem, it doesn’t end there, there is a quick slap back from Prem. That was beautiful. It wasn’t heroic but genuine.

For a film which was going with such a flow, I was afraid that it would have tear jerker of a climax. Even though a part of me told that it wouldn’t happen, I was still afraid. But thankfully, it wasn’t the case. They patch up well and easy. Even the kissing scene in the end felt organic, even though filmy.

It’s a film we know, how it’s gonna end but it’s about how it goes till the end. Credit has to be given to the director to have kept the films tempo intact. It’s a film which could have easily faltered, if it had taken any other route. Thankfully Ayushmann doesn’t overdo stuff and the director keeps it crisp to end the film on a happy note.

Movie Review – Namak Haraam

A salt less soup

It was yet another mistake by me to have watched this soupy friendship tale disguised in the form of a cult classic. Wonder how to choose a good old Bollywood movie to watch. ‘Pyaasa’ was termed as classic and so was ‘Silsila’ but they both were grounds apart. Even otherwise, it is quite difficult to get into any sort of streamlined process to watch a good Bollywood movie of the past. Every time I expect to get something like ‘Sholay’, I only end up being disappointed. Plus the fact that each of these are going to be for three hours is not helping at all.

‘Namak Haraam’ was about a couple of friends. Firstly the entire film happens in flashback mode but the way it starts with Vikram ‘Vicky’ Maharaj (Amitabh Bachchan) coming out of jail, rightly pointed out by Manisha (Simi Garewal) that he looks like some psychology professor, actually got me curious. It was like sitting in an unknown place on a dog day afternoon and feeling something mysterious, yet pleasant about it. How Amitabh comes out so fresh out of jail as if he was in some therapeutic resort is a question which we’re not supposed to act but the feel of it was nice. But the happiness doesn’t last long.

We see a young Vicky and Somnath ‘Somu’ Chander Singh (Rajesh Khanna) in the flashback mode, who were given built up first by a couple of old men in tea shop bench, about how strong is their friendship. If that was not enough, the introduction scene was made cheesier by Somu’s sister “cutely” asking for pocket money from Vicky, Vicky having sweets from Somu’s mom and what’s worse, Somu appears in the same shirt as Vicky does. Why? I mean why were male friendships of the past projected as if they were gay. Even the playful encounter between Abbas and Vineeth looks weird in “Mustafa Mustafa” song. Wonder what the directors were actually thinking.

The movie treads in the same cheesy line throughout. There were various instances of one supporting another throughout the movie. Even though we know eventually sense was gonna prevail, the time taken was too much. The whole of the first half was just fooling around and when Somu gets to know that Vicky has some trouble by the workers. He disguises himself as a worker so that he could take revenge on the union leader.

If first half was about Vicky getting cheesy, the second half was about Somu and his romance. Absolutely abysmal. Even with his charm, it was really hard to digest that part of the story. With songs and slapstick comedies, it was annoying at best.

Sense prevails finally in the climax but by the time it happens it was too late and the sequence of events happen too sudden, which doesn’t give us any time to absorb. The titular dialogue happens just for name sake towards the end and doesn’t appeal at all. We don’t get any time to sympathize with Somu and be confused for Vicky. Conveniently Vicky’s dad ends up being the villain and gets hated by all.

What could have made the film interesting was instead of Vicky’s dad being projected as an outright villain, he could have shared how his ideology was correct. Even if we couldn’t have sympathized by him, there should have been some points were we could have been put into a confusion. The same confusion could have made Vicky vulnerable and not able to choose which the right path was. Plus when it comes to an emotional war between his dad and his best friend, the situation could have been more hectic for him and interesting for us.

Instead around the end, Vicky’s dad becomes the bad guy, Somu becomes the good guy and by the time Vicky could react, everything gets over. May be filmmakers of the past just want to cash in on the opportunity of the big stars but I could see it as only plain escapism because there were movies in the past which had tried to have some emotional value in addition to just being a dramatic slam bang sort of filmmaking. Hope I don’t end up being disappointed like this for yet another yesteryear Bollywood movie.

Movie Review – D

Raw and rocking

Ram Gopal Varma’s films are a charm isn’t it. Even though, this was not directed by him. Vishram Sawant only looked like he mirrored RGV’s thoughts because it looked very much an RGV film with raw, unruffled emotions. Produced under his banner and considered the last of his movies among Indian Gangster Trilogy the movie was to the point. As much as the emotions looked stripped, ‘D’ was all about emotion. Lethargic, third person type of emotion. With Randeep Hooda at the fore, he brings in a natural flavor to the type of movie which Ram Gopal Varma had wanted.

Just like any out of the box movie, it takes a while for the audience to settle. The initial few minutes are clumsy and intentionally made in that way. May be that’s an attribute to RGVs style of film making. We get to see a young man, Deshu (Randeep Hooda) coming back to his hometown for his mother’s death. Deshu is not really an emotive person. He feels that it’s just his duty that he had to be there for his mother’s death. It’s more of a compulsion for him than the love towards his mother. He sees a live death within few days and then again witnesses a murder which makes him understand that it’s not a fair world outside.

The acting for these sequences were pretty much Godard like. The emotions were not spoon fed for us to understand. We don’t feel curious to see what’s his life was going to become but we get driven by his life, as if like a passerby. As he gets humiliated by Mangli’s (Raju Mavani) gang, instead of confessing or joining the gang, he joins the opposite gang and takes his revenge.

Then all we see is his rise, which was in a way interesting. There were few interesting scenes where the dialogues can’t be heard, even though they continue to talk. Generally these would be implemented at some of the suspenseful points in the film and is one of the most irritating techniques but here it feels like fast forwarding an unwanted song. It was a relief because we don’t really want to get to the details of an uninteresting man. We just want to see the highlights. The music in those junctions too were appealing and elevates the mood of the movie, giving a retro punk feel.

The only point of the film which looks forced in the conclusion. Hashim Bhai (Goga Kapoor) becoming folly of the plans of two of his sons, Mukarram (Sushant Singh) and Shabbir (Yashpal Sharma) felt too convenient. A man of his stature believing age old tricks like this was not convincing. It’d have rather been interesting if he had acted as if he was supporting his sons because if he had not he’d have been killed by his sons. If he had, he would’ve known that his sons would be eventually killed because Deshu is no normal person. That conflict would have been interesting than having a plain old ending.

The film more than anything was ambitious and that was so nice to watch. Any budding filmmaker who wants to make a gangster film would be inspired and would think that they don’t have to always have a huge budget for such movies. In fact even the gun sound coming of silencer was done so soft that there was no big fuzz over anything. It’s a world which RGV has created and would remain forever like this, no matter what he does post that.

Movie Review – Gehraiyaan

Gin and Toxic

‘Gehraiyaan’, just like the name suggests plays with the depths of human emotions like no film has ever done in recent past. ‘Kapoor and Sons’ was my 500^th movie review and probably one of the best, if not the best movie which I watched in that Corona period. No movie has ever been done so well in a “Bollywoodish” way. It’s very much Bollywood and that’s the beauty of it. So, I was naturally intrigued to watch ‘Gehraiyaan’. No matter how many bad reviews were there, my temptation to watch the movie never went down. Still it was a shocker…

I remember watching ‘The Descendants’ in theatre. It was an Oscar season and Escape had been newly opened. I wanted to catch up as many Oscar movies as possible in that season. The least likely film to win the Oscar, first. In that way I ended up watching ‘The Descendants’. Alexander Payne is a really heavy director. He infuses pain, like no other, just in a subtle way. The beauty about ‘The Descendants’ was that it was very American and unapologetically so and more so, without wanting to prove a point. Maybe it didn’t effectively work for me because I couldn’t understand the culture, but ‘Gehraiyaan’ was an answer to it. How strong the movie was and how well it suits the generation where people aren’t showcased stupid.

The movie was haunting right from the word go, as ravishing as Deepika might look, we know something is wrong when we struggle to focus on her beauty. The music or the lack of it affects our mood too. The constant sound of waves tries to soothe us but its only on the surface level, it pushes us into hopelessness even before that. I think no other actor would have understood Alisha like Deepika did. There are films which people elevate and exceed the director’s expectation. Just like how Kangana did in ‘Queen’, I’m sure Deepika would have flattered Shakun with her acting. Not only him but also his costars. I feel she’d have been the centrifugal force for the other actors to get in mood.

She could be as great as she was, may be because of her personal experience. If really, she had undergone something like that, how difficult it would have been for her to rekindle those memories and relive if for the movie. I remember Imitiaz Ali telling in an interview, that for heavy scenes he’d say cut before Deepika completely zones out, because he personally knows her and wouldn’t want her to get into it as he knows how difficult it would be for her to get her out of it. I can only feel for her, thinking about her experience for acting Gehraiyaan. One of the reviews had rightly commented that, “Deepika is an actor we won’t deserve”

In a county which is still coming to terms with subjects such as mental health and people thinking that rich people won’t undergo depression, this movie was such a revelation. Even though for a movie like ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ one tends to think that they were able to experience all of it due to money, here people’s thoughts wouldn’t even go to money. I don’t remember any movie using a Yacht as an object for depression. Yacht is always related to parties and al fun stuff. Here a lot of other emotions are experienced in Yacht. It’d one of the main prop of the movie.

The casting was perfect. Deepika as a yoga instructor was a dream. Siddhanth fresh from the success of ‘Gully Boy’, does a fabulous job as a confused person. Even though he’d be perceived as a villain for everything he does in the movie. Look how it was not all straightforward. He has a struggle of his own. Keeping aside the aspect of morality, think how much would be going in his mind too. The fluctuations were beautifully written. Hell, Shakun can make even Ananya act. And she was perfect for the movie. Dhairya Karwa didn’t have much to do. Probably the most straightforward person. And I love the touch of how there are writers in all of Shakun’s movies. He’s only made two, but I guess it’ll be his motif. Only confusing thing was, they all were shown as same age, which was weird.

Thanks to all bad reviews, I knew this movie was going to be personal for movie. I’d have hated to give a bad review for this movie. When I was watching in Prime, the first thing I noticed was the IMDB rating which showed as 5.9. Most of my personal films have been seven pointers. They’d be the best experience I’d have had. But noticing the low rating, I was happy that this movie could also have a scope like this.

The only thing I didn’t want to happen was showing Naseeruddin Shah as a good guy after projecting him as a bad guy throughout but even that was handled beautifully. I’d have still preferred him to have been hated by Alisha (Naseeruddin Shah) throughout, but I liked the twist. If that doesn’t work, the climax twist would really leave you with a chill… There are some movies which can totally spoil your mood and push you in that zone. If you don’t hate it, it’ll consume you. Just like how it did to me.

Movie Review – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

The joy of simplicity

What great joy it is to watch a proper Bollywood Rom Com. It’s one of the movies which you don’t want to take effort to watch but would love to watch on TV on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I did the same for the second part of it which I got a chance to watch out of the blue. I was wanting to have the same experience for the first part, but didn’t really get a chance, so thought why not put some effort in watching rather than waiting for it. I am happy that it ended up being a fulfilling experience.

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are a great combo. In fact, Varun Dhawan is a proper Bollywood hero material. As much as he looks goofy on the outside, he’s able to emote well and get the audience to like his character. ‘Badlapur’ is a different story altogether but one need not demean him by saying that it’s the only good film he has done because he was the same in that when compared to his other movies but Sriram Raghavan’s casting was perfect that he used his commercial element to make people watch the movie. In fact, it’s due to Varun Dhawan people could believe in that character. It made people think that this could happen to even Bollywood heroes. That’s such brilliance. Wish only the final post credits song had been avoided. It’s too great a movie to have such a song.

Here in ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ there is no such complexities. When the movie begins with Humpty (Varun Dhawan) being introduced as a playboy, I thought it was one of the ‘Student of the Year’ type of movies where everything would be big but thankfully it was rooted. Both the Delhi and Ludhiana part. These are the things people miss out in big budget extravaganza. They’d be of an opinion, that a handsome hero and a beautiful heroine would suffice, no matter what the setting is. The director, Shashank Khaitan, deserves the credit to have kept the believability factor in. Except for the opening scene and the scene where they try to mark the groom as gay, every other scene worked like a charm. Thankfully they didn’t include the “gay factor” to close the groom chapter.

For a romcom, the emotions were at check. It was handled in the right way. The plot is as silly as going to a Metro to get a designer lehenga but it’s the authenticity in which it was done makes us believe in the film and get into it. Rather than falling in the template it plays with the template beautifully. SRK BGM, Alia’s off shoulders and lehengas makes us believe that she’s next-door dream, there are a couple of emotional scenes, a kissing scene at right juncture, an amazing song, and the music of that amazing song as BGM in important scenes. In a way it ticks all the boxes in the template and that too without any apology. Kudos for that. Every film need not be a ‘Kapoor and Sons’ where it must be an impactful film in the Bollywood blueprint, but movies can be as simple and enjoyable as this too.

The silliest of emotions work, be it returning the gold jewellery after blackmailing an illicit relationship, be it the friends and father who give money for Kavya’s (Alia Bhatt) Lehenga, she gifting a Celerio. These are scenes written like a college kid in Annual Day play, but it still works. Thanks to the sincerity. The actors too have done their part in really believing in what they’re doing. Wish the naivety stays with them when they become bigger stars.

Finally, Alia Bhatt, can’t she keep a foot wrong when it comes to acting in a proper Bollywood film, can she. She’s a great actor and people appreciate her for ‘Highway’, ‘Raazi’, ‘Udta Punjab’ etc. but on the other hand it’s films like ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’, ‘Two States’ which really make us fall in love with her. She’s epitome of class when it comes to modern urban setting cinema. I intentionally omitted ‘Kapoor and Sons’, ‘Dear Zindagi’ type of films because you can’t hate her in those films. With that one emotional breakdown scene she’d sweep you off your feet. But even without that, with just her lehenga and off shoulders she can still woo you. Not only for the looks but with acting too.

No matter what type of films come, hope the joy of these Big Budget Bollywood films stay relevant and don’t want the makers to take the audience for granted, just because they want to enjoy a happy film.

Movie Review – Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

Kya karoon ho ladies…

And that’s the winning shot. With that I finish the last movie of the year and complete my resolution of sharing one review per day since lockdown. It was a great feeling to watch the movie like waiting to hit the winning run after you know that you’re assured of a win. I was carefully selecting for the right movie to watch which should either be a great movie or a movie which would make me happy. ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ was both, with the weight titled more towards the latter than the former.

• 

Even though ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ might not look like a movie one would take effort to watch, it’s actually worth it. It had a finesse like Hollywood studio movies where they know exactly what they are doing. Being a Yash Raj film with both Anushka and Ranveer having a contract with them, they had planned a fool proof movie and made it work too. It deserves as much appreciation like an off-beat film. Even though it’s a mainstream movie, it’s a mainstream movie done to perfection. May be if I had watched it back in 2011 when the movie got released, I would’ve sidelined it for being a normal movie. But now when I’m in a spree, any movie which makes me happy in the midst of all this clutter holds a special place in heart. Also, this being the winning shot movie I’ll remember it like how I’d always remember ‘Kapoor and Sons’ for being my 500^th review.

The story is supposedly inspired by Jeffrey Archer’s novel ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’ but from what I remember there is nothing common in between. The story of the movie is simple. Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) is a con man who selects rich women as target and takes money from them. Apart from that he’s no Casanova because all he does is woo and take the money but he has no interest in women. That’s actually a wonderful and unnoticed thing in the film. Though the film appears sexy, we don’t see him making out with any woman. Thus, making it a film for everyone. Another masterstroke from studio.

It’s Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh’s second outing together. Even though the magic of ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ is missing, they still make a terrific pair. Here Ranveer outscores Anushka, who comes only in the second half of the movie. She looks ravishing though. The makers rightly select Goa for con job so that they can experiment with their costumes. Another masterstroke. All these are masterstrokes not because its an unthinkable idea but because how well they’ve worked within their boundaries. Commercial films have their own set of rules and limitations, to work effectively within that needs appreciation.

The film could have been very well named as ‘Kya karoon ho ladies…’ or even ‘Mein hoon aadat se majboor’ but the title ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ has some character. Very rarely does a name have character. Vicky Bahl was one such name. Dev D, Johnny Gaddar, Arjun Reddy etc. are some of the titular names that I could think of which had character. Ending the film in such a sweet straightforward way also needs to be appreciated. Even though I was wanting for Ricky to escape with all the money in the last shot so that it’ll be punchy, it was nice to see a straightforward happy ending where all are satisfied.

Generally, in a movie like this, other than the lead pair, the other ladies too need to act well, to make it a complete film. Here all the three do a decent job. Parineeti Chopra as Dimple Chaddha was terrific, Dipannita Sharma as Raina Parulekar was decent and Aditi Sharma as Saira Rashid was calm and beautiful. It was a good way to open up with a story and then put on the title cards along with the song. Another well done trick within the boundary. Together the three stories make for a decent first half. The second half isn’t as interesting as the first one but still manageable enough, thanks to Parineeti. But with a nice happy ending, it makes you forget whatever blemishes it has. Personally, for me nothing came to my mind and I have no complaints at all.

Movie Review – Gulabo Sitabo

Where old is mistaken for antique

Wonder what’s all the fuss about. First of all, I didn’t like a heavy prosthetic clad Amitabh in a Shoojit Sircar film. Shoojit Sircar is a master storyteller who weaves magic with his screenplay. So, it was kind of weird to see a man, that too with a caliber of Amitabh, in such heavy make-up. It’s understandable for a R. Balki movie like ‘Paa’, but Shoojit Sircar, hell, no! Guess all the talks about ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ was similar to ‘Soorarai Potru’ where both were a landmark film because it released in OTT. Otherwise, it felt like just another average joe.

• 

‘Gulabo Sitabo’ is a boring film. Unfortunately, there is no better to put. In fact, this looks to be weakest of Shoojit Sircar films, only next to ‘Yahaan’. But ‘Yahaan’ was his debut feature and the director still didn’t have his style so he was just finding his ways so that’s pretty much forgivable. But ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ was too ambitious and it ended up being a bad painting which the maker considered to be a modern art. Guess there would be people defending this film too like how they do for any slow film but this film was outright boring.

It has some of the finest performers on screen. In fact, everyone who appeared on screen, whether their role was short or long were fabulous. Special mention to Farrukh Jaffar, what an actor she is and how underutilized. Begum was the only spot of charm in an otherwise dull movie. Even though it was a black comedy and all that, I was happy that Begum wins at last.

The bloating fact of the movie is that it’s a black comedy. But when a genre like black comedy becomes a genre movie, it has to be handled very carefully. Black comedies are something which must make us think, which must make us feel whether we should be laughing or crying for a scene. Or control our laughter and feel proud when others don’t get it. But this time, that kind of feeling was hardly there for any scenes. Maybe I was on the other side of spectrum, the clueless gang. But I don’t think so, there is even another side. It was straightforward and mundane. The opening scene where Chunnan “Mirza” Nawab (Amitabh Bachchan) steals the bulb and the climax scene where he and Baankey Rastogi (Ayushmann Khurrana) look at the haveli were some classic black comedy scenes which should’ve made us laugh a lot more.

Ayushmann Khurrana underplays his character and as usual blends in the film. So much so that, here we don’t feel he’s a lead. He hardly has any impact. It was good to see actors taking such “unimportant” characters. With the way the film took its own sweet time to establish, I thought it’s going to be a movie like ‘October’ which is my absolute favorite but ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ ended up being timid and unresponsive, especially after we get to know what’s the story about. All the walks to and fro for legal procedures were just like those mundane uninteresting walks one takes to go to office.

Look at the magic in ‘October’. It’s one of the toughest films to make. The leading lady falls off from a great height at the very start of the film and probably that’s the highest point of the film, there is no “action” as such in the entire film after that. There is no surficial high point. Everything happens inside and off screen and that transforms to us too. How tough it is to visualize such a concept and what great acting by Varun Dhawan too. That’s the film which made me take notice of him and want to complete his entire filmography.

Another classic film of his which I watched without knowing about the greatness of the director was ‘Piku’ and how wonderful was Amitabh in that. So naturally I was intrigued for Amitabh’s performance in this film too but expect for that one scene where he explains why Begum married there, there wasn’t any scene where I could enjoy the acting. Too much prosthetics to even feel that it’s Amitabh out there. Like I said before, it was okay for a fun film like ‘Paa’ but not for a heavy film like ‘Gulabo Sitabo’.

Movie Review – Raman Raghav 2.0

Can he ever make a bad movie?

Anurag Kashyap. What a man he is. Can he ever make a bad movie? ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is not really a film which stands out in his filmography but its one of the gems I’ve watched it in recent times. Every time I watch his movie, I can’t help but be astonished. ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is no different. ‘Dev D’ is considered as his best work and I too swear by it because that’s when I was getting to this type of films in Hindi cinema but when I watched ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ I felt like Anurag Kashyap has grown so much in stature. I guess I need to revisit ‘Dev D’ again as I don’t remember much but my recent watches, ‘Ugly’ and ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ were nothing short of phenomenal and equivalent to ‘Dev D’ in terms of stature.

• 

‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ was released internationally as ‘Psycho Raman’. Wonder what’s the funda behind it. It loses it sheen through such a simple giveaway title. It’s not such a spoiler because Kashyap’s movie anyways is gonna be psychotic but ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ has so much character just like the way the opening credits are given where its mentioned about a psycho killer and how its not a film about him. Also, it made me wonder there was already a part one. These are typical Kashyap gimmicks which are so much fun. All this gets lost in a title like ‘Psycho Raman’ which is straightforward and dull.

The movie has a somewhat chirpy opening. Not happy chirpy but vibrant one. We see a great looking Vicky Kaushal dancing his ass out and picking a girl in a dance pub. The happiness lasts only till that. When he goes out to score drugs, she sees a gun in his hand. Not sure whether the next scene was supposed to be a suspense but I was able to guess that he killed a person there. When we think that he is some sort of goon, we get to know that he’s a cop when he arrives at the crime scene next day. So that’s how fucked up the situation is and how it’ll be.

Vicky Kaushal was terrific in this movie. I am running short of adjectives to describe his performance. This film also has him in his best look yet. It’s not easy to grab attention when you have a performer like Nawaz bhai but when the whole world thinks it’s a movie about Raman, Vicky comes as Raghav and outperforms Raman. It’s like a once in millennium happening when someone beats Nawaz in performance. May be when the opening credits said, “it’s not a film about him”, it also meant that it’s not a film about just Raman? (Nawaz) who knows? but appears so. That’s what great makers do. They make us ponder upon stuffs. And Vicky Kaushal outperforms Nawaz not by winning him but being more miserable and pathetic. That’s even tougher and such a rarity. No one can be hated more than Nawaz when he’s doing a psycho role but here Vicky makes us hate him more than Nawaz. That last closing of the door shot especially, he absolutely has no remorse. In fact, the whole of last chapter is where he wins over Nawaz bhai. The way he has done drug scenes like a pro and not like a man who’s possessed is an absolute gem. Generally, around the world, these druggists terribly overdo stuff. Mostly its seen as a romantic depression but here it felt real.  

It’s amazing that this 2.0 version is not really was his initial script. He wanted to make a period film but since he would not be able to get financing (thanks to the ‘Bombay Velvet’ debacle, which was too classy for anyone to understand), he chose to rewrite script as such. It makes me wonder how can an altered version be this good. Or may be its good that he altered it. I can’t really tell. The period film could have been equally amazing too.

There are a number of chapters in the film, analyzing it one by one would take an essay and its not a film to be reviewed after a single watch like I generally do. So overall there were certain amazing things that I’d like to point out. First is the opening scene as I said above. The part where Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) surrenders himself for the killings was an amazing idea. It looked like the Ludlum’s version of Bourne’s idea where he’d have mentioned that when you see your enemy do the least expected thing. A person would sit next to his enemy and say ‘hi’. I loved that idea. That’s the best way to get one off the hook. Ramanna does a similar thing here. Only in the next chapter we get to explore him fully. The ‘sister’ chapter is a great material to write and gave me some great ideas, maybe I’ll write a short/story with that idea. That’s where Nawaz bhai unleashes himself. Seriously, none could bring out a psycho’s mentally like Kashyap does. After that it’s a cat and mouse game. After a performance like in the ‘sister’ chapter, if an actor could beat what Nawaz did, just imagine his acting prowess. Vicky Kaushal exactly does that in the last chapter. Seriously, what an actor he is. Now I’m realizing why he has been hailed so much.

Throughout the film I had an uneasy feeling like when I was watching ‘Ugly’. All his films make us feel uneasy. But the uneasiness of ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ was more in sync with ‘Ugly’. The film got me upset and got me dizzy for the night because the effect creeps slowly like how drug is infused. Seriously, Kashyap, what a man he is!