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 – October

A soothing love(ly) story

For some reason this film became altogether popular in my feed during the lockdown, it was there everywhere. Also, for some reason, there was a certain bit of curiosity seeing Banita Sandhu in poster. Having known her through ‘Adithya Varma’ and not really liking her presence, I wasn’t really intrigued with her. But this film and the poster in it, got me intrigued. Also got to know from few that the film would be nice. So, that’s the backstory between this film getting to the list. As much as I hate dedicating all my first paragraphs on why I watched the particular film, I seem to not avoid it, that’s the first thing that strikes my mind. It makes it look less professional but I’m sure it feels more personal.

Shoojit Sircar is one of the interesting directors, can be even called as one of the best. He has an excellent repertoire of films to his credit. Films which I liked without knowing who the director is. That’s much greater than watching a film for the director. In the latter you start romanticizing the film right from the word go and start finding nuances of director in it. But in the former way, you are wooed by it, by some mystic force. ‘Vicky Donor’ and ‘Piku’ are the movies which wooed me like that, wooed me to theatres. It’s a rarity to watch a Hindi film in theatres, that too with these two films, it was an all of a sudden plan which ended up being sweet memories.

October has some of the most soothing sequences to open with. Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) is a calm and composed girl who works as an intern in a star hotel. Even though she’s calm and doesn’t do much, she has a mystic presence. Like the flowers she collects. It’s not that it’s going to have some drastic life changing effect but some pleasantness associated to it. I don’t know how does it smell, maybe it smells the right amount where one doesn’t notice its smell but feels good about it. Not overpowering as well and not unnoticeable. It’s that kind of presence which Shiuli has and makes us like her instantly.

Dan (Varun Dhawan) on the other hand is a carefree individual, everyone’s favorite and has a charming presence. His character was superbly written. Even though he makes mistakes, it doesn’t look like a major one. We don’t get angry on him. He’s also someone who could be defined and restricted to boundaries. He’s a free-flowing individual but not a rebel. He does things at the spur of the moment and doesn’t have any real reason as to why. All these characteristics make him fall for Shiuli, after her fall.

I’m not sure whether its right to call it a love story. I feel it’s as if a disgrace, his affection towards her was much more special than ‘love’. The film was poetic, much like ‘Lootera’. The tree at the end especially reminded me of ‘Lootera’ but it’s not a strong film like ‘Lootera’. It’s more like an experience. It can be broadly classified as a mood piece. But it’s not really that heavy a film to be categorized as one. But it can’t be classified as a feel-good film too. Because it’s not that simple a film too. Shoojit Sircar has the knack of settling in between a feel good and heavy film with utmost ease.

Everyone can watch this film in which even the mundane activities look interesting. That’s the skill of director. Varun Dhawan does a fabulous job in this role which looks as if its tailor made for him. He’s the one who makes us watch the film through his eyes. It’s a great take on positivity of life, the trust he has on an individual, how he respects people and how he shows what’s important in life. The characters are great too. Shiuil’s mother, Prof. Vidya Iyer (Gitanjali Rao) does a fabulous job as a mother of three daughters. She has that smartness of a teacher too so she doesn’t break down that easily. The other two kids were great too. I loved the scene where Shiuli’s younger brother teases Dan that Shiuli didn’t call her name. That was the best scene of the movie.

The film just doesn’t make Dan an addict where he loses his life for this cause. When Shiuli’s mother asks him to carry on with his life. He goes for it, does a decent job but again comes back for her. Nothing is forced. It just happens without any reason. Thankfully the movie didn’t end with her getting well. But her death doesn’t feel heavy too because we’ve seen her fight through it. it’s a film which showcases the will to fight, right to live and trust the instincts. Not every emotion can be put into words.

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.