Movie Review – Bala

Spitefully smitten

Ideally a film so weak like ‘Bala’ should have gone deep down the dumps but it resurrects itself beautifully through masterful making which doesn’t bore us for most part. Add to it we have a good cast who don’t overdo stuff, may be except for the make up which looks overdone for both the ladies. But above all, why the movie works is because of the humor factor. Which is a fool proof method to woo any audience. Here the movie doesn’t get serious at any point of time. There isn’t a single place where it goes teary eyed. Even the most serious scenes are dealt with a tinge of humor. May be that’s to escape the risk of becoming melodramatic. But whatever, it majorly works.

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It’s yet another Ayushmann Khurrana message movie where he takes a subject which everyone can relate to and presents it with humor. He has now mastered the art. The film works because of him, may be if it had been anyone else, it wouldn’t have been this good. But on the other side, it’s not as glorious as how he was in the movies where he was in full form, like a ‘Badhaai Ho’ or ‘Vicky Donor’. The law of averages has finally caught up with him, in this segment. But thankfully his not outs have been more so he still has a healthy average. I told previously that being the guy who acts only in these type of message films is a risk. He time and again proved me wrong, even with ‘Article 15’, which I throughout wouldn’t be great. But with ‘Bala’ he seemed to have slouched a little bit.

The film opens with a couple of kids in school. One a hero and another an object of ridicule. The hero guy woos all the kids around by fluffing his hair and calls the dusky girl, a blackie. But she’s not the one to deter. The scenes even though a normal happening in school shows what impact these things would have on a kid. It’s good that the girl had a strong heart, otherwise she’d have easily been broken off. Young Latika (Saniya Touqeer) if much more fabulous than the elder version (Bhumi Pednekar) Thanks to the shoddy makeup. Young Bala (Sachin Choudhary) too does a decent job whereas with respect to the apt look, the elder version looks were done really well, given that Ayushmann Khurrana has slimmed down for the role, which in a way it looks realistic for the titular role.

For a script like this, there is nothing much you can do differently with respect to the story. So, the entire first half talks about how Bala deals with the bald image and his various antics. Most of the jokes where he tries to grow up the hair, even though silly, gives us laughs. In the second half he gets married to a beautiful girl who thinks he has real hair. Quite obviously he wants to tell the truth but couldn’t, which leads to comedy of errors. There is a phase where it should have got a little serious. Especially the day after the marriage but that’s dealt comically too. May be the makers took a cue from ‘Vicky Donor’ where the only part which looked weak was the phase where Yami Gautam rejects him. I found it to be too silly a twist. But unlike ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Bala’ is a film which rides more on comedy than on emotional quotient so it was okay for the twist, which I’m sure everyone would have guessed.

It’s a good ploy to employ Yami Gautam as a fairness model, which she is in her real life. Bhumi Pednekar on the other hand acts as the more evolved person out the two leading ladies and does a fair job in spite of the de-glam make up. Generally, in an Ayushmann Khurrana movie, which in itself has become a brand, it’s the side kicks and environment which works big time. Here too it’s the same. His house, street, family members, everyone look so apt and natural. That’s why it’s a film which has more hits than misses.

Movie Review – Badlapur

Back home it’s called Raghavan thriller

Oh, how long this movie had been in my watchlist. Thanks to the one song ‘Jeena Jeena’, I tried to postpone it to the best possible time to watch. What beautiful rendition by Atif Aslam. That too if you see him singing, you’ll just get melted away. I thought this movie would be on the lines of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. I guess I got carried away by the name, I thought the movie would be raw and rustic rural subject with lot of guns and violence. Guns and violence were there alright but in a different way.

The movie won me over right at scene one. How elaborately that scene was made. It was the time I was erasing my preconceived notions about the film, that it would be a rural film, so when I was getting basked in the city life and observing everyday happenings in a road, as if like a by passer, suddenly a robbery happens. The robbers escape in a car which a lady and her kid were about to go. In the next scene they both die. Suddenness, have never been shown in a much better way. The film was terrific just for this one scene. A lot of thing happen and it’s all sudden. When we were casually experiencing the mundane life, the happenings happen all of a sudden. It’s like accident, you never know that it’s happening until it happens to you. How brilliant is that.

From there it’s all Nawaz bhai’s show. Probably his finest till date, yeah even better than Gangs of Wasseypur. I wonder why this film wasn’t seen by as many as I thought it’d be. It’s not really a slow film to be missed. It’s a top-notch thriller which will work for people who even casually watch movies. It’s a film which should work for anyone.

Raghu (Varun Dhawan) carefully plots revenge for the people who had killed his family. I thought the movie would take a different direction when Liak (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) gets jailed. He tries various antics to escape and finally gets cancer. The period in which he remains in jail is best exhibition of acting. I wonder how the movie was narrated to him and how he absorbed it. That’s what good actors can do to a great script. The whole part was excellent. It’s impossible to watch his scenes without developing hatred for him.

Varun Dhawan does a decent job too, something I didn’t expect from him. But still he was not at home like how he was for the rom coms like ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ or ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’. Both Alia and Varun felt like they were made for those roles. In spite of that he still does a fabulous job. His anger didn’t work for him but when he controls and acts subdued, the sequences before the final kill, those things worked. For example, the scene with Radhika Apte in car and the date with lawyer, those scenes were brilliant. It gave time to see through a killer, the calmness before storm. That too without being heroic. It was brilliant.

For a film which makes us hate the antagonist so much, his love angle still works. Liak and  Jhimli (Huma Qureshi) make a terrific pair, who make us sympathize with them. When Raghu tortures Jhimli by making out with her, we feel that it’s the best sort of revenge but still get a weird feeling as to who is crueler, Liak or Raghu. But how can Raghu let everyone go when his close aides are killed. Those psychologically affecting scenes were brilliant.

Of all the characters I felt bad for Liak’s mother who doesn’t know the happenings but wants Liak to be free. What a terrific actor Pratima Kazmi is, who could make us feel sad just by looking at her. And of course, there is our treasure trove Radhika Apte as Koko. How could she be so sexy in everything she does. One who looks like a seductress in her first scene becomes completely vulnerable in the scene where she strips. Wonder what makes her such a complete actress. What a woman!

The film as such is a great film but it reaches new level because of the climax. For some reason Liak knows that he’s doomed and goes to jail and eventually dies there too. It’s now not a question of revenge, who gets to find a revenge in a better way is the question. Liak definitely doesn’t win but leaves Raghu with an incomplete feel too. Raghu think that he’s the one dictating terms when he lets off Liak without killing but Liak takes that too from him. Now it becomes a curious subject, at last who really is satisfied.

What a great filmmaker Sriram Raghavan is.