Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

One by Two : Urban Diaries

One by Two has two parallel stories running side by side (many times literally shown by split screen). Amit Sharma (Abhay Deol) who works as a project manager in an IT company. He is recently dumped by his girl friend Radhika (Geetika Tyagi) who moves on in life with her new boy friend Ranjan Sadanah (Diwakar Pundir), who is a dance reality show producer. But Amit does not move on and wants Rahika back in his life. Amits’s colleagues and friends Anika (Preetika Chawla) and Mihir (Tahir Bhasin) always try to get him out of this idea.

In parallel happens the story of Samara Patel (Preeti Desai). She is a western dancer who is in casual relationship with her dance group leader Jonathan (Yudhishtir Urs). She too breaks up with him when he ditches her as lead dancer of the group and selects someone else. She lives with her mother Kalpana (Lillete Dubey) who is an alcoholic and needs Samara to take care of her. However, after Samara lives the dance group and decides to participate in Dance Reality show “Dance Wars”, Kalpana keeps her motivated.

When Amit knows that his ex Girlfriend Radhika’s boyfriend Ranjan is producer of “Dance Wars”, he makes a plan to hack into the voting system of the show and rig the results to make deserving candidates losers and vice versa. By doing this he wants to reduce the TRP of the show which can result is getting Ranjan hacked. He thinks this way Radhika can come back to his life.

Amit hacks the system with his friends and due to that Samara, who is supposed to win, looses the show. Show TRP decline and Amit succeeds in getting Ranjan out of the show. However, Radhika rejects him again saying he is the most boring person she has ever meet. However, she herself comes back to him to accept her after he becomes famous due to a coincidence.

What that coincidence is? How Amit becomes famous? What happens Samara? Do they ever meet? You can know all this when you watch the movie. The question is, shall we watch it?

This story and screenplay by Devika Bhagat is like urban diaries of 2 different persons who live in a city and happen to cross each others life many times without actually knowing it. The screenplay has many sub plots like that of Amit’s Mother Meenu (Rati Aghnihotri) trying to get him married with a plum Shishika (Yashika Dhillon), Samara’s father’s (Anish Trivedi) behaviour with her mother. Then that of a B Boying Dancer Bunty (Netrapal He-Ra Singh) who meets Samara on Dance Wars and that of Amit’s poet uncle ACP Dhawan (Darshan Jariwala), etc. These sub plots does not help take the story forward. The main stories strictly run parallel and the lead actors do not actually meet each other for a lot longer bit that you would expect. So we can only assume that Devika only wanted to show urban diaries of two people. The film has an open ending or scope of sequel (which shall not be made). Devika has also written the dialogs with Manoj Tapadia, which does to help in the film anyways.

Devika again takes the mantle as Director of the film and do not show much potential here too. Rather than the main story, Devika somewhat succeeds in portraying the relationships of Amit and his friends, Amit and his mother, Amit and his Uncle, Amit and his arranged marriage would be bride, etc. Barring that the movie is a drag and convoluted tale of urban people which is not narrated in an entertaining manner. Editor Shan Mohammed despite excelling in technically weaving the two stories together, could not save the film as the writer and Director was unsure of what she wanted to say.

Cinematography by Sameer Arya is glossy and glamourous. Production Design by Mustafa Stationwala is good. I must applaud the attention to detail in using ubuntu desktop on the computer screens (considering Amit manages forums and is a hacker). Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is average without any chartbusters. Choreography by Ashley Lobo is frustratingly bad considering dance and dance acts form major portion of the film. It is a total lost chance in that department.

The best part in the film is brilliant performances by the supporting cast like Rati Agnihotri, Darshan Jariwala, Lillete Dubey, Yashika Dhillon, Tahir Bhasin and Preetika Chawala. Abhay Deol’s earnest effort could not salvage the film as he does not get to show any other expression than boredom in most part of the film (which is induced in the audience too). Preeti Desai as Samara does not impress at all. She is said to be trained dancer but does not get to show her skills due to shoddy choreography. Overall casting by Panchami Ghavri is a hit and miss case. Great example of Miss case is B Boy Netrapal He-Ra Singh as Bunty.

Overall it is a yawn inducing movie which makes us “pakawoed” like Abhay Deol is in the movie.

Rating :

Recommendation : If you want to sleep, why to buy ticket and go to theatre. SKIP!

One by Two : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Hasee Toh Phasee : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Gunday : Bollywood Masala Fry

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Music composed by: Sohail Sen
Production company: Yash Raj Films
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh,Arjun Kapoor

In search of angry young man or the typical macho hero, Bollywood is exploring lawless belt of the country (UP, Bihar) for stories of Police officers (Dubangg, Rowdy Rathor), Thief and Gangsters (Rowdy Rathor, Bullet Raja, Boss) and travelling back in time (Once upon a Time in Mumbai, Shootout at Wadala). While doing so they are educating audience on illegal drug trade, smuggling, gun trade, etc. Another illegal trade was brought to forth by Anurag Kashyap in Gangs of Wasseypur though it can not be called a typical Bollywood masala film. Ali Abbas Zafar seems to be inspired from it and used this illegal coal business backdrop and back in time retro formula while writing this week’s release “Gunday”

Gunday is a story of 2 kids, Bikram (master Darshan Gujar) and Bala (master Jayesh Kardak), who were orphaned during Bangladesh war. They face a lot of atrocities in relief camp there. So they run to Culcutta hiding in a coal wagon or railway. After trying to make an honest living by working hard at small restaurants, they’re forced to fight for their rights and snatch it. They do it by stealing coal from railway wagons. In few years, as they grow up, Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) build their empire by having presence in all business through their muscle power and become kings of Calcutta.

A big twist in their life comes after government bestows ACP Satyajit Sarkar (Irrfan Khan), the responsibility of cleaning Calcutta from the menace of Bikram and Bala. He warns them about being under his vigilance always and advises them to refrain from any illegal activities. Second twist, but somewhat beautiful, comes in the life of these two goons in the name of Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), a cabaret dancer. They both fall in love with her and agree to try and woo her one by one alternatively. They agree that they will be ok with whoever Nandita chooses as her lover. What happens next is the story which has more twists and turns topped with lots of Drama and action.

Ali Abbas Zafar is credited for Story, Screenplay, Dialogs and Direction. So it is a one man show on the story telling part of the movie. He has used all the formulas and cliches but tried to present them in a gripping manner with a big canvas. He gets us intrigued in the story telling and keeps us hooked by the characterisation and performances he extracted from his lead cast. However, this grip is lost few times throughout the movie and you can find yourself checking your cellphone notifications. Another issue which hurts this movie is lack of a strong villain and interesting peripheral characters. Due to this, you feel like you are watching a 3-4 character movie while the canvas is that of a big budget multi-starrer. This makes us feel suffocated like we are in a coal mine. There are many such loopholes in the screenplay which mars the whole experience. But still, Ali Abbas Zafar makes up for it via stylish presentation and few good dialogs.

Ali Abbas Zafar must be praised for the way he has raised questions over the system which gives birth to such Goons without being preachy. He has 2-3 directors shots in the movie like the flying of pigeon when Bikram and Bala fights, and the empty train at the end, etc. He sure has good potential and we can expect better products from him in future.

Editor Rameshwar S. Bhagat must be applauded for handling so much content effectively. Cinematography by Aseem Mishra gives it the larger than life as well as the retro feel as per the demand of the script. Production Designer Rajat Poddar with Art Director Kailash Sahu has been given free hand by Yash Raj Films and he has done justice the freedom by giving high quality output. However, the dummy train in few scenes is looks DUMMY. And the scene when Arjun Kapoor Blows a warehouse has not come out well.

Costume Design by Subarna Ray Chaudhari also stands out and we can not forget the outfit with red heart shaped mark on it. It adds to the outwardly and raucous behaviour by the illiterate heroes. Stunts by Sham Kaushal are good but could’ve been better. Music by Sohail Sen is average barring ‘Tune maari entriyaan’ and will be soon forgotten.

Casting Director Shanoo Sharma again hit bulls eye in casting of this movie. The child actors who played Bikram (master Darshan Gujar) and Bala (master Jayesh Kardak) done a marvelous job. Pankaj Tripathi in a small role of Lateef who gets these kids in the world of crime made an impression. Jameel Khan (as Satyajit Sarkar’s colleague) did not get much scope, but Anant Sharma (as Himanshu) makes his presence felt. Again the problem is none of the peripheral characters are explored fully which could’ve improved this movie a lot.

Highlight of this movie is performances by its lead cast i.e. Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. While Ranveer and Priyanka steals the show, Arjun Kapoor equally does good. While Irrfan Khan does is best, he is not backed by the writer properly. Ranveer infuses energy on the screen and Priyanka oozes glamour every time she is there. The chemistry between Ranveer-Arjun, Ranveer-Priyanka, Arjun-Priyanka and between all 3 is outstanding.

Overall, “Gunday” is a good masala movie with good performances and larger than life story telling. It is a clean film and can be watched with family and kids.

Recommendation: The day you watch “Gunday” will be a good day. Do watch it.

Show timing :
Smruti Cinema Nagpur – residency road sadar, nagpur, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:25pm‎
Pvr Empress City Mall – empress city mall, opposite raman science centre gandhi sagar lake, Nagpur, India
‎3:10‎ – ‎4:10‎ – ‎5:20‎ – ‎6:20‎ – ‎7:20‎ – ‎8:30‎ – ‎9:30‎ – ‎10:30pm‎
Cinemax Eternity Mall – eternity mall, variety square, sitabudi, Nagpur, India
‎10:15am‎ – ‎12:10‎ – ‎1:25‎ – ‎3:20‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎7:35‎ – ‎9:40‎ – ‎10:45pm‎
Jaya Shree – near lohapool, cotton market, subhash road, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Rajvilas Cinema – nagpur mahal, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Panch Sheel – wardha road, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Inox Tuli Mall – kamptee road, nagpur, Nagpur, India
‎1:00‎ – ‎2:25‎ – ‎3:10‎ – ‎4:05‎ – ‎6:15‎ – ‎7:10‎ – ‎9:20‎ – ‎10:15pm‎
Inox Poonam Mall – poonam mall, Nagpur, India
‎1:00‎ – ‎3:10‎ – ‎4:05‎ – ‎6:15‎ – ‎7:10‎ – ‎8:30‎ – ‎9:20‎ – ‎10:15pm‎

Gunday : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Highway : A road less traveled

Star Cast: Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda
Director: Imtiaz Ali

Imtiyaz Ali is one of the most important directors in today’s Hindi Film Industry. His incredible success in recent past has created a fan follower which expects mushy love stories with melodious songs from him. With his humble beginning from “Socha Na Tha” which launched Abhay Deol, Imtiyaz tasted success in his second film “Jab We Met” which helped Kareena Kapoor to erase “POO” from public’s memory and replace it with “Geet”. Imtiyaz’s formula of new age romance with the protagonists being confused about whether they are in love or not continued with his subsequent movies “Love Aaj Kal” and “Rockstar” (though Rockstar had a huge canvas apart from that). Another element of his movies is journey. The characters are either on run or in a journey in most part of the movie. In his new movie “Highway”, these 2 elements are still there. It is an unusual love story as well as it has a lot of travel across length and breadth of north India.

Imtiyaz Ali is credited for Story, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction of “Highway”. As per his interview this story has been with him since 12 years when he made half hour episode for a television serial “Rishtey” in 1999. He thought of many ways of telling this story considering it via multiple genres including big action film. Finally, Imtiyaz settled on telling this story sans anything else and stuck to the journey of his protagonists and finding themselves on the way. It’s a coming-of-age movie.

The story is based on a thin premise that a girl who is kidnapped finds freedom in the captivity. Veera Tripathi (Alia Bhat) is city girl from very influential and rich family who has never been real open world. Even their travels, the family stays in hotels only. Veera has a craving for the road and open air. She insists her fiancée for a long drive on which she gets kidnapped by Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda). But she feels free in this captivity and eventually falls in love with him. The story is not about what happens next but how things happen and the overall experience the Director creates for us.

The story is interesting and but screenplay could have been better. Though the movie keeps the audience interested, it does not entertain them per say. Few more scenes of cameraderie and fun on the way could have solved that purpose. Even a little more details of Mahabir’s backstory could have provided the much needed drama.

Though the screenplay lacks in happening and entertaining content, Director Imtiyaz Ali makes up for it by the experience he creates for the audience. The film moves across 6 states, many unseen locations and breath taking landscapes. With his cinematographer Anil Mehta, Imtiyaz takes us through a journey unforgettable. While doing so, he also makes a strong statement on all that is wrong in the society without even showing any of that visually. All trough the movie, he makes us think how far we have came away from the beautiful world that has been created for us by the All-mighty. He not shows how cut off we are from real world out of the city but also gives hint of how the side effects of civilisation is creating a rich-poor divide which is giving birth to many oppressors. It also throws light on how even the well heeled too are suffocated under the pretence of today’s society and how there are dangerous criminals hidden within regular public. Take a bow Mr. Director for this.

A. R. Rahman and Imitiyaz Ali created magic in “Rockstar” which raised the expectations about this film’s music a lot. Though the music is good, the Rahman-Imtiyaz Ali combo fails to give multiple hit songs. Also, as the film has less things happening on screen, lack of many good songs is felt drastically. This is the second part where film is lacking.

Performance wise this is an Alia Bhat film all the way. She breathe the character and brings it alive on screen. Randeep Hooda impresses with his top notch performance too. However he gets very little significant to do than watch Alia from distance. Other actors playing roles of Aadoo (Durgesh Kumar), Tonk (Pradeep Nagar), Goru (Saharsha Kumar Shukla) does perfect justice to their job.

Overall, “Highway” is a very well made and very important film of our era. It shall be India’s entry to Oscars this year.

Rating and Recommendation:

“Highway” is a complicated film to review. It’s hard to rate. Rather it shall not be rated because it is not just a film but is an experience. It needs to be experienced and felt. And if I may say, only a few can feel it. So everyone who look for quality cinema which is unique and different, do go for this movie.

Highway : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Dhoom 3 : Prestigious Dhoom

Cast :Aamir Khan (Sahir), Katrina Kaif (Aaliya), Abhishek Bachchan (ACP Jai Dixit) ,Uday Chopra (Ali Akbar Fateh Khan), Tabrett Bethell

Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya

Music composed by: Pritam Chakraborty

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Cinematography: Sudeep Chatterjee

Dhoom is most successful movie series in India and Dhoom 3 is most awaited film of 2013. Dhoom series has a great unique format where the villain is bigger than heroes. Where the villain is the main attraction of the movie. I am not sure if there is any other such mainstream commercial movie series with such format. Even if Abhishek Bachchan can claim any number of times that Dhoom series is chronicles of Jai and Ali and they are the heroes of the movie, people throng the theatres to watch the villain.

Dhoom 1 was sort of kinder to Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra as they got equal footage too John Abraham’s character which was more popular because it was author backed. With Dhoom 2 having Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai as thieves the game became tougher. Hrithik took the movie to an unprecedented level which seem hard to be break into. He completely shadowed Jai and Ali whose roles got smaller. AB Junior intact got a lot of flak at that time for looking lethargic and somewhat fat in front of Hrithik.

This time, with Amir Khan playing the thief, the film gets as bigger as it can get. Amir Khan, knowns as the perfectionist of Hindi Film Industry, is known for his sense of script. This time, though heavily “inspired” from hollywood flick “The Prestige”, the screenplay by Vijay Krishna Acharya is good and hence Amir must have accepted the film. He is credited as Victor Acharya for this movie (is victor the alter ego of Vijay?).

Vijay is associated with Dhoom series from start. He is the writer behind all Dhoom movies. Dhoom 3 is a totally focused screenplay which is centred around the story of the thief. Hence, Jai and Ali gets much lesser roles. In fact, it also chucks away typical romantic track even after having lead actress like Katrina Kaif. Though it does make the movie taught, it also makes it dry as it lacks in comic and romantic entertainment. The script has good twists and turns. Vijay is also credited for dialogues which are apt.

Vijay Krishna Acharya gets credited with same name as Director. His much hyped Tashan fall flat at the box office but he did show some spark for style and action. With Dhoom 3, he gets already successful formula which has lot of scope for both. Being on home ground and supported with best technicians and star cast, he does his job remarkably. With the help of his editor Ritesh Soni, he keeps the pace of the movie fast and keeps audience hooked to the story. The way he delivers the twists in the movie is remarkable. He is extremely successful in presenting the story of the thief but fails in making Jai and Ali track work for it. In fact, he keeps very less chance for romance too (as it is the demand of the script too). If he could have some how managed to boast those areas too, it would have been a complete entertainer. Still a big round of applause to live unto the stupendous expectations from the movie.

Dhoom 3 is blessed with A list start cast and supporting actors. Most screen time is dedicated to Amir Khan (as Sahir) and he proves that he is the BEST. Though he lacks in physical presentation of the character (as compared to Hrithik or even John), he makes for it by his incredible acting talent. He is successful in impressing the audience again. Abhishek Bachchan (as Jai) is as his usual self. Uday Chopra (as Ali) does not have much scope due to very less screen time and no support from writer this time. We do not even remember him after the movie. Katrina Kaif is at her best form but is wasted again due to very less screen time. But she is best in whatever screen time she gets. I wish she had more meaty role. Jackie Shroff impresses in his small role. Tabrett Bethell who is Chicago police woman is a mis cast. She has ample screen time which is wasted.

Special mention for the child artist Siddharth Nigam who comes second or as close to Amir Khan. He must get all the awards for child actor for this year. What a heart warming performance by him. He is a kid to watch for.

Production by Aditya Chopra is of international standard and Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee takes full advantage of it and delivers stunning visuals. Action by Conrad Palmisano and Sham Kaushal is top notch. Music by Pritam Chakraborty and Julius Packiam lacks good songs which can last. Aditya Chopra lacks the ear for music which his father Yashiji had. He needs to hire Mahesh Bhat for this department. Choreography by Vaibhavi Merchant and Dien Perry is good. Katrina sizzles in her dances like liquid electricity (as described in the movie itself).

How can one talk about Dhoom without talking about bikes? I saved this best bit for last. Amir Khan gets a better bike than bat pod which is a convertible to many useful functions other than just being a bike. Do lookout for it. I would have loved Jai and Ali playing more with their bikes too however they just get to ride them (Don’t know why Jai gets an entry with Auto)

In summary, Dhoom 3 delivers the promise and is a good family entertainment for this weekend. There can not be a better film to end the year. Go end it with DHOOM.

Recommendation : Watch it for Amir, his bike and for everything Dhoom stands for. Do not forget to suspend your belief before entering the cinema hall. And yes, this movie can be watched with whole family (which is hard to say about most movies coming now a days)

Also, do watch hollywood movie “The Prestige” on DVD after you watch this movie any time you can. It is a movie which must not be missed.

Dhoom 3 : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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They say rightfully that “Public sab janti hai”. When I entered the multiplex parking for the morning show, there was almost no vehicles parked. When I entered the cinema hall, I was only 1 person joined by another soon. Later it turned out that we both are film reviewers and thus the auditorium technically has no real audience who come just to watch the movie.

For me Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey are actors with great comic timing and I will always have good feeling about any film which have both in it. However, I do not know what made them sign this project written by Arshad Sayyad and Directed by Samir Tewari.

The film is a supposed to be a spoof on detective movies. However, even a spoof needs a plot line. And obviously this film does not have it. International criminal Carlos (Javed Jaffrey) is hired by General Kopa Kabana (Snehal Dabi) to stop the marriage of his love interest Gehna (Geeta Basra). At the same time Detective Joe B. Carvalho (a pun intended to sound like Jo bhi karvalo) is hired by Khurana (Shakti Kapoor) to get his daughter Neena (Karishma Kotak) back home who ran away with Ramlal. M. K. (Vijay Raaz) who is unhappy to not get the supari by Kopa Kabana is eager to kill Carlos. However, due to some situations, Joe is considered to be Carlos. Then the film is supposed to be comedy of errors but fails in execution. There is also a love track between Joe and Shantipriya (Soha Ali Khan) who is an inspector on duty to catch Carlos.

Director Samir Tewari tries to improvise the scenes with hot shot style humour. The characters do something or other which affects some other part of the scene unintentionally to cause laughter. Or the characters have cartoon style physics where they fall, shrink, fly, etc like in Tom & Jerry. I do had laughs at few ones however most fail even to move any smile muscle. The movie has content enough for 30-50 min film which is stretched to a feature length.

On performance side, Arshad Warsi is wasted. Javed Jaffrey does his work honestly but do not get enough traction later in the story. Soha Ali Khan is ineffective. Likewise Joe, she can’t seduce audience also. Vijay Raz, Shakti Kapoor, Ranjit are as usual. Geeta Basra and Karishma are sidekick eye candy.

Technically the film is adequate.

Overall, there is nothing you take home at then end of the movie.

Calling Mr. Joe B Carvalho : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Yaariyan : The Kiss Quest

Youth is biggest consumer in India. Age of this nation is reducing day by day. A large number of youngsters are below 20. Also many in their teenage are forming major chunk of population. It is evident from the teenage crowd flocking to the theatres that there’s a good market for teenage flicks if released professionally. With the muscle of T-series behind it, Yaariyan did succeed in creation of pre-release buzz for the movie. With the help of chart buster music, it is successful in getting its audience to the theatre.

A good movie needs great marketing to get the theatre seats filled initially but it is the content of the movie which keeps it filled for 1-2 weeks which actually helps in doing good business. It will be interesting to see if Yaariyan is able to achieve it over coming days because it has very less to offer and that to for a niche section i.e. teenagers. If this movie still does great business, then we can conclude that the teenage market is worth targeting (perhaps with better content) in future.

Yaariyan focuses on teenage “hormonal locha” which the makers think keeps them on the hunt for physical pleasures from the opposite sex. As the lead male character Lakshya (Himansh Kohli) is in quest for kissing his current girlfriend Jenny (Serah Singh), he and his group gets punished (?) to protect the college from being take over by the australians. Is it sounding as weird while reading as it is to me while writing? The principal of the collage, Jimmy sir (Gulshan Grover) gives even more absurd justification for his choice. So this group of good for nothings fight for the cause with multiple sources of motivation by mother (Smita Jaykar), Mausi (Deepti Naval), Friend Debu and girlfriend Saloni (Rakul Preet Singh) given time to time.

Credit for Story, Screenplay and Direction is given to Divya Khosla Kumar who is family member of the producers. It is her debut film. She seems inspired by multiple teenage flicks and tried to pull best out of them and put in this movie to create a cocktail which unfortunately fails in taste. She brings in instances from real life like australians beating Indian student and also tries to flavour the recipe with patriotism. While doing all this, it is also a coming of age story where the reluctant protagonist realises the importance of being man of substance. However, the movie fails to be so.

It is said that there are very less female directors in film industry. When a female director wields megaphone, we expect female characters treated with more dignity than their male counterparts. However, from the first scene to the last, Divya never misses a chance to show cleavages from top angle and bikini clad legs from low angle. Apart from 3 glamour girls, Jenny (Serah Singh), Jannet (Evelyn Sharma) and Jiya (Necole Faria) as students who do not leave a chance to shed cloths, there are 2 female teachers. They are shown as flirty in a cheap way, dropping their saree pallu in every frame. If that’s supposed to be funny, I do not subscribe to that kind of humour. Sorry.

To give credit to Divya, the screenplay has few engaging moments, even if cliched or formulaic, at times it works. Also the film has difficult scenes like mounting biking, mountain climbing, etc which takes hard work in execution. So we can say it is a good debut by her as director. I doubt if we can expect any better from her in future.

Film is technically strong. It has a great cinematography by Sameer Arya. He shows Sikkim and Australia in its all natural beauty. Production value of the film is top notch. Editing by Parameswaran and Aarif Sheikh could have been better if they had made it more tighter and fluid. The biggest strong point on which this film relies is Music. Songs by Pritam, Mithoon, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, are already busting the charts. With T-Series at the helm of the affairs, music has to be the best. And it is.

The film is a candy floss, coming of age, romantic musical in an imaginary college (in reality, it can’t exist) which works with teenage audience.

Recommendation : Skip it unless you are a teenager with “hormonal loch”

Yaariyan : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Dedh Ishqiya : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Miss Lovely: Retrospective on C grade movie industry
Director: Ashim Ahluwalia
Story by: Ashim Ahluwalia
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Niharika Singh, Anil George
Screenplay: Ashim Ahluwalia, Uttam Sirur

There is mainstream commercial cinema which seldom is good on all aspects. There is quality cinema which entertains or engages too. Then there’s a cinema reflects real life as is sans any dramatisation or spicing up. Such cinema is generally popular in art film lovers, film scholars and festival circuit regulars. Miss Lovely comes from that orbit. Generally such movies do not reach from their orbit to earth of mass release. But times have changed and all types of cinema is getting wider release. Though with a delay, this film got a release. It is a good sign but I am not sure if such movies can ever enjoy patronage like other types of cinema enjoy. That eventually makes it harder to get released.

Miss Lovely is a story which brings to us the dark by-lanes of this shiny glamours film industry. It is about the C grade film industry of 80s. The audience of such films expected much more than titillation when they paid for their tickets based on their view developed from the posters and text lines on them in local ads by exhibitors. To keep them satisfied and hooked, such notorious exhibitors used to add after market reels of porn scenes into the movie. This way they guaranteed repeated and devoted audience and everyone in the supply chain is happy (the way, a character in this movie says “Maine kaha tha na, sabko khush kar dunga”). While theatre owners opted for such dubious ways to ensure business, investors were interested in easy access to sex it offered.

Story of this film by Ashim Ahluwalia, is rumoured to be based on Ramsey Brothers. Though the film scene shown do resemble the films by Ramsey’s in that era, I do not think it is about their life experiences. Story is definitely has a different background and subject does offer novelty.

The story is about 2 brothers with elder one, Vicky (Anil George) being the alpha male going for hunt and having big ambitions. But for achieving those, he has not calms use any wrong methods. While enjoying the benefits of casting couch himself, he rubs shoulders with horny investors who are more interested in skin taste than screen test. Younger brother Sonu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who is reluctantly following orders by his brother with frequent protests which are ignored and crushed ferociously. Sonu is wants a cleaner life and dreams about directing a mainstream romantic film “Miss Lovely”. He falls in love with pinky (Niharika Singh) while dreaming to cast her as his heroine. To achieve this he follows some unscrupulous ways which lands not only him but the entire gang in trouble.

Screen play credits are shared by Ashim Ahluwalia and Uttam Sirur. The screen play is on the line of the treatment planned for this movie. Even though it uniqueness does keep audience interested in what next, it does not keep them glued to the screen. It does not sweep us emotionally nor delivers the story with dash of entertainment. It it successful in affecting us but the emotion it generates is disgust. It does make you unstable but does not give the fulfilment of watching a good film. It also does not give reasons or proper flow so sometimes makes it harder to understand the ongoings. It does have few highs but lows are more and persistent. So a mixed job done on screenplay here.

Ashim Ahluwalia again in Directors chair, is clear about how he wants to treat the film. He goes about it without compromise and is able to recreate reality as is on screen. He uses lifelike pace and holds camera in many shots for a lot longer than normal. He is able to create the atmosphere with all its dinginess and cringeworthy reality. He is unabashed and fearless in his vision and execution. From the first frame in projector room to the tiny box in the climax where a blue film is being shot on video, every detailing is taken care to recreate the world of C grade film industry and its even lower grade fraternity. However, the world is unwelcoming, disgusting and disturbing. Though the director is successful in generating these emotions in you as audience, I do not think if it is good cinema or not. Though credit must be given where due. A big applause for the Director to stick to his vision and make the film, the way he wanted to make. However, the editing again by him only could have been better. There are few places where we do not get link of why and what is happening. Though we are amused, we are not connected or involved in the movie. That’s what makes it unrecommendable.

While we talk about atmosphere and feel of the movie, let’s mention that production design by Tabasheer Zutshi is spot on. Be it the jungle set or horror movie scene or the cabaret dance set, it is as realistic as possible. Art Director Dhanya Pilo shall be given credit for it. Casting by Sharad Kalawar is perfect.

Most cast of the film is unknown except Nawazuddin but everyone has given good realistic performance. It is a tailor made role for Nawazuddin who does it with full sincerity and honesty. He plays the unhappy, good hearted Sonu convincingly. Anil George as his elder brother is excellent too. Niharika Singh as pinky/saloni/pooja is ok. Every other actor has done justice to their roles.

So “Miss Lovely” is an art house film which disturbs and unsettles you but does not give a feeling of watching a good film.

Ratings:

Recommendation : I will not recommend this movie to anyone except art house and festival cinema lovers. It may be different and realistic, but I will not spend my money on its tickets.

Showtimes for Nagpur, Maharashtra

Pvr Empress City Mall – empress city mall, opposite raman science centre gandhi sagar lake, Nagpur, India
‎8:10pm‎
Cinemax Eternity Mall – eternity mall, variety square, sitabudi, Nagpur, India
‎5:45pm‎
Inox Tuli Mall – kamptee road, nagpur, Nagpur, India
‎10:50am‎ – ‎5:05pm‎
Inox Poonam Mall – poonam mall, Nagpur, India
‎11:05am‎ – ‎7:50pm‎

Miss Lovely: Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Jai Ho: Violent Aam Aadmi

Director: Sohail Khan
Language: Hindi
Production company: Sohail Khan Productions
Cast: Salman Khan
Music composed by: Devi Sri Prasad, Sajid-Wajid

Salman Khan films are critic proof. Whatever critic says, still his movies will by default do 100cr+ business. He is a star who can do anything on screen and his fans will still cheer for him. I think he specially chooses such films which do not require to stress brain even a bit. However, this time, Salman has came out a film with a message. A message which can make the society better if followed with sincerity, honesty and compassion.

Jai Ho is a remake of Chiranjeevi starer South Indian Film Stalin written hence the story credit is given to A. R. Murugadoss. Story is is good at the idea level but it seems that no one bothered to develop it to its full potential. Dilip Shukla has written the screenplay and dialogues. He has done whatever he could with the undeveloped story. The film gradually grows on you till interval and raises expectation. Later, it goes down without lack of content. A beautiful idea is wasted because it is half baked and not fully exploited. Another problem I have is with comic scenes which mostly revolves around the child actor in the film. He has some cringeworthy dialogs (which his well educated father-mother ignores under the pretence of he being naughty). It seems that now a days comedy can not be written without going below the belt and special without mentioning undergarments.

The Story is about Jai Agnihotri (Salman Khan), who lives with his mom (Nadira Babbar) happily. Though his mother is angry with his sister Riya Agnihotri (Tabu) for marring against her will, Jai enjoys good relations with his Sister and Brother-in-law, Rehan (Mahesh Thakur). He’s specially fond of their son Kabir (Master Naman Jain). He generally spends time with them like aam urban aadmi by going to amusement parks, multiplexes, etc. With so much time together, he also falls in love with a girl, Rinky (Daisy Shah) who is his sister’s neighbour. While doing all this, Jai who is good soul, keeps trying to help people in distress all the time. Once he helps a girl (who saves a girl from some roughs in a club) caught by goons. When her family wants to thank him, he gets an idea and requests them to help 3 other people instead of saying thanks. This idea pics up and spreads. Jai keeps on doing good things where he confronts with many baddies in town. One such incidence involves him in fight with the son (Mukul Dev) of home minister (Vikas Bhalla) who then kidnaps Jai’s nephew, Rehan. While Jai saves Rehan, he kills home minister’s son. In all this confrontation, how Jai gets out of danger due to his own chain of good deeds is the story of this film.

Director Sohail Khan has done better job than his earlier films. He is able to keep good pace of the narrative. Even though the songs appear at wrong times and film gets slow and diverted at many places, overall he keeps audience interest alive till interval. Post interval he is paralysed due to lack of content and film gets dull. Swift Film Editing by Ashish Amrute is also not able to save the movie post interval.

Production value of the film is top notch. With most portions being shot at Ramoji Film City, Production Design by Sabu Cyril is ok. Cinematography by Santosh Thundhiiayil is pleasing. Casting by Mukesh Chhabra is epic due to access to all and any star actors in the industry. Action sequences (Anl Arasukumar, K. Ravi Varma and Dave Judge) are very well done. They can be gory for the week hearted and small kids (film has U/A certificate).

Music by Sajid-Wajid, Devi Sri Prasad and Amal Malik could not give any block buster song which is generally a main crowd puller in a Salman film. Still, ‘Photocopy’, ‘Baaki sab first class hai’ are foot tapping and ‘Tere naina’ may be on radio for a lot longer time period. Choreography by Remo D’Souza, Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru, Shaikh Jani Basha, Mudassar Khan and Shabina Khan is excellent and Salman has danced his heart out in those songs.

Jai Ho is a star studded film with Salman Khan in almost each frame. But there are many small roles for which well known actors/stars are used. Being a Salman Khan film, no one must have dared to say no to the role offered to them. Everyone has done good job in their roles. Only complain I have is with Genelia D’Souza who plays helpless handicapped girl without both four arms. Why on earth she accepted this role?

The new lead actress, Daisy Shah, making debut through this big film who is apparently a Salman Khan find is good at dancing but totally zero at acting. Thankfully he does not have much role in the movie.

Salman Khan is in full form in this movie and sizzles on screen every time he is there. He is able to get a lot of applause from his fans in the cinema hall. The “being animal” part in his character came out properly but isn’t utilised fully. He did to go over the top (may be because the role is already over the top) nor he sleep walked through the role (as he does many times). Salman is backbone of this movie and this movie is much better treat for his fan following than many other recent one like Ready and Ek tha tiger. I would not hesitate to say it has more repeat value than those.

The film has many loopholes and cinematic liberty is used till it is abused (For example, Sunil Shetty who is Jai’s friend since army days, bangs a car in middle of city road with an army TANK). Being a remake of South Indian film, it has the typical south masala which can kill anyone who expects some substance from cinema. Overall, it is an out an out action packed entertainer which you must not watch if you take cinema too seriously.

Recommendation : Sallu Bhai ki film hai… Mai kuchh bhi bologna, aap dekhoge hi. Masala film lovers will watch the film because they love it. The ones who do not like such potboilers, but love movies, will still watch it to make fun of it. For others who really want to see ONLY good quality cinema, I have one word… skip!

Everyone else will watch it anyways.

Jai Ho showtimes for Nagpur

Cinemax Eternity Mall – eternity mall, variety square, sitabudi, Nagpur, India
‎9:00‎ – ‎9:45‎ – ‎10:15am‎ – ‎12:45‎ – ‎1:15‎ – ‎2:45‎ – ‎3:45‎ – ‎4:15‎ …
Raj Talkies – Nagpur, India
‎12:00‎ – ‎3:00‎ – ‎6:00‎ – ‎9:00pm‎
Pvr Empress City Mall – empress city mall, opposite raman science centre gandhi sagar lake, Nagpur, India
‎9:00‎ – ‎9:30‎ – ‎10:00‎ – ‎11:00am‎ – ‎12:00‎ – ‎12:30‎ – ‎1:00‎ – ‎2:10‎ …
Janki Theatre – near bank of maharashtra, sitabuldi, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Rajvilas Cinema – nagpur mahal, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Liberty – residency rd nr bishop ground, sadar, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Alankar – north ambazari road, dharampeth, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Panch Sheel – wardha road, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎

Jai Ho : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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One by Two : Urban Diaries

One by Two has two parallel stories running side by side (many times literally shown by split screen). Amit Sharma (Abhay Deol) who works as a project manager in an IT company. He is recently dumped by his girl friend Radhika (Geetika Tyagi) who moves on in life with her new boy friend Ranjan Sadanah (Diwakar Pundir), who is a dance reality show producer. But Amit does not move on and wants Rahika back in his life. Amits’s colleagues and friends Anika (Preetika Chawla) and Mihir (Tahir Bhasin) always try to get him out of this idea.

In parallel happens the story of Samara Patel (Preeti Desai). She is a western dancer who is in casual relationship with her dance group leader Jonathan (Yudhishtir Urs). She too breaks up with him when he ditches her as lead dancer of the group and selects someone else. She lives with her mother Kalpana (Lillete Dubey) who is an alcoholic and needs Samara to take care of her. However, after Samara lives the dance group and decides to participate in Dance Reality show “Dance Wars”, Kalpana keeps her motivated.

When Amit knows that his ex Girlfriend Radhika’s boyfriend Ranjan is producer of “Dance Wars”, he makes a plan to hack into the voting system of the show and rig the results to make deserving candidates losers and vice versa. By doing this he wants to reduce the TRP of the show which can result is getting Ranjan hacked. He thinks this way Radhika can come back to his life.

Amit hacks the system with his friends and due to that Samara, who is supposed to win, looses the show. Show TRP decline and Amit succeeds in getting Ranjan out of the show. However, Radhika rejects him again saying he is the most boring person she has ever meet. However, she herself comes back to him to accept her after he becomes famous due to a coincidence.

What that coincidence is? How Amit becomes famous? What happens Samara? Do they ever meet? You can know all this when you watch the movie. The question is, shall we watch it?

This story and screenplay by Devika Bhagat is like urban diaries of 2 different persons who live in a city and happen to cross each others life many times without actually knowing it. The screenplay has many sub plots like that of Amit’s Mother Meenu (Rati Aghnihotri) trying to get him married with a plum Shishika (Yashika Dhillon), Samara’s father’s (Anish Trivedi) behaviour with her mother. Then that of a B Boying Dancer Bunty (Netrapal He-Ra Singh) who meets Samara on Dance Wars and that of Amit’s poet uncle ACP Dhawan (Darshan Jariwala), etc. These sub plots does not help take the story forward. The main stories strictly run parallel and the lead actors do not actually meet each other for a lot longer bit that you would expect. So we can only assume that Devika only wanted to show urban diaries of two people. The film has an open ending or scope of sequel (which shall not be made). Devika has also written the dialogs with Manoj Tapadia, which does to help in the film anyways.

Devika again takes the mantle as Director of the film and do not show much potential here too. Rather than the main story, Devika somewhat succeeds in portraying the relationships of Amit and his friends, Amit and his mother, Amit and his Uncle, Amit and his arranged marriage would be bride, etc. Barring that the movie is a drag and convoluted tale of urban people which is not narrated in an entertaining manner. Editor Shan Mohammed despite excelling in technically weaving the two stories together, could not save the film as the writer and Director was unsure of what she wanted to say.

Cinematography by Sameer Arya is glossy and glamourous. Production Design by Mustafa Stationwala is good. I must applaud the attention to detail in using ubuntu desktop on the computer screens (considering Amit manages forums and is a hacker). Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is average without any chartbusters. Choreography by Ashley Lobo is frustratingly bad considering dance and dance acts form major portion of the film. It is a total lost chance in that department.

The best part in the film is brilliant performances by the supporting cast like Rati Agnihotri, Darshan Jariwala, Lillete Dubey, Yashika Dhillon, Tahir Bhasin and Preetika Chawala. Abhay Deol’s earnest effort could not salvage the film as he does not get to show any other expression than boredom in most part of the film (which is induced in the audience too). Preeti Desai as Samara does not impress at all. She is said to be trained dancer but does not get to show her skills due to shoddy choreography. Overall casting by Panchami Ghavri is a hit and miss case. Great example of Miss case is B Boy Netrapal He-Ra Singh as Bunty.

Overall it is a yawn inducing movie which makes us “pakawoed” like Abhay Deol is in the movie.

Rating :

Recommendation : If you want to sleep, why to buy ticket and go to theatre. SKIP!

One by Two : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Hasee Toh Phasee : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Gunday : Bollywood Masala Fry

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Music composed by: Sohail Sen
Production company: Yash Raj Films
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh,Arjun Kapoor

In search of angry young man or the typical macho hero, Bollywood is exploring lawless belt of the country (UP, Bihar) for stories of Police officers (Dubangg, Rowdy Rathor), Thief and Gangsters (Rowdy Rathor, Bullet Raja, Boss) and travelling back in time (Once upon a Time in Mumbai, Shootout at Wadala). While doing so they are educating audience on illegal drug trade, smuggling, gun trade, etc. Another illegal trade was brought to forth by Anurag Kashyap in Gangs of Wasseypur though it can not be called a typical Bollywood masala film. Ali Abbas Zafar seems to be inspired from it and used this illegal coal business backdrop and back in time retro formula while writing this week’s release “Gunday”

Gunday is a story of 2 kids, Bikram (master Darshan Gujar) and Bala (master Jayesh Kardak), who were orphaned during Bangladesh war. They face a lot of atrocities in relief camp there. So they run to Culcutta hiding in a coal wagon or railway. After trying to make an honest living by working hard at small restaurants, they’re forced to fight for their rights and snatch it. They do it by stealing coal from railway wagons. In few years, as they grow up, Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) build their empire by having presence in all business through their muscle power and become kings of Calcutta.

A big twist in their life comes after government bestows ACP Satyajit Sarkar (Irrfan Khan), the responsibility of cleaning Calcutta from the menace of Bikram and Bala. He warns them about being under his vigilance always and advises them to refrain from any illegal activities. Second twist, but somewhat beautiful, comes in the life of these two goons in the name of Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), a cabaret dancer. They both fall in love with her and agree to try and woo her one by one alternatively. They agree that they will be ok with whoever Nandita chooses as her lover. What happens next is the story which has more twists and turns topped with lots of Drama and action.

Ali Abbas Zafar is credited for Story, Screenplay, Dialogs and Direction. So it is a one man show on the story telling part of the movie. He has used all the formulas and cliches but tried to present them in a gripping manner with a big canvas. He gets us intrigued in the story telling and keeps us hooked by the characterisation and performances he extracted from his lead cast. However, this grip is lost few times throughout the movie and you can find yourself checking your cellphone notifications. Another issue which hurts this movie is lack of a strong villain and interesting peripheral characters. Due to this, you feel like you are watching a 3-4 character movie while the canvas is that of a big budget multi-starrer. This makes us feel suffocated like we are in a coal mine. There are many such loopholes in the screenplay which mars the whole experience. But still, Ali Abbas Zafar makes up for it via stylish presentation and few good dialogs.

Ali Abbas Zafar must be praised for the way he has raised questions over the system which gives birth to such Goons without being preachy. He has 2-3 directors shots in the movie like the flying of pigeon when Bikram and Bala fights, and the empty train at the end, etc. He sure has good potential and we can expect better products from him in future.

Editor Rameshwar S. Bhagat must be applauded for handling so much content effectively. Cinematography by Aseem Mishra gives it the larger than life as well as the retro feel as per the demand of the script. Production Designer Rajat Poddar with Art Director Kailash Sahu has been given free hand by Yash Raj Films and he has done justice the freedom by giving high quality output. However, the dummy train in few scenes is looks DUMMY. And the scene when Arjun Kapoor Blows a warehouse has not come out well.

Costume Design by Subarna Ray Chaudhari also stands out and we can not forget the outfit with red heart shaped mark on it. It adds to the outwardly and raucous behaviour by the illiterate heroes. Stunts by Sham Kaushal are good but could’ve been better. Music by Sohail Sen is average barring ‘Tune maari entriyaan’ and will be soon forgotten.

Casting Director Shanoo Sharma again hit bulls eye in casting of this movie. The child actors who played Bikram (master Darshan Gujar) and Bala (master Jayesh Kardak) done a marvelous job. Pankaj Tripathi in a small role of Lateef who gets these kids in the world of crime made an impression. Jameel Khan (as Satyajit Sarkar’s colleague) did not get much scope, but Anant Sharma (as Himanshu) makes his presence felt. Again the problem is none of the peripheral characters are explored fully which could’ve improved this movie a lot.

Highlight of this movie is performances by its lead cast i.e. Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. While Ranveer and Priyanka steals the show, Arjun Kapoor equally does good. While Irrfan Khan does is best, he is not backed by the writer properly. Ranveer infuses energy on the screen and Priyanka oozes glamour every time she is there. The chemistry between Ranveer-Arjun, Ranveer-Priyanka, Arjun-Priyanka and between all 3 is outstanding.

Overall, “Gunday” is a good masala movie with good performances and larger than life story telling. It is a clean film and can be watched with family and kids.

Recommendation: The day you watch “Gunday” will be a good day. Do watch it.

Show timing :
Smruti Cinema Nagpur – residency road sadar, nagpur, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:25pm‎
Pvr Empress City Mall – empress city mall, opposite raman science centre gandhi sagar lake, Nagpur, India
‎3:10‎ – ‎4:10‎ – ‎5:20‎ – ‎6:20‎ – ‎7:20‎ – ‎8:30‎ – ‎9:30‎ – ‎10:30pm‎
Cinemax Eternity Mall – eternity mall, variety square, sitabudi, Nagpur, India
‎10:15am‎ – ‎12:10‎ – ‎1:25‎ – ‎3:20‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎7:35‎ – ‎9:40‎ – ‎10:45pm‎
Jaya Shree – near lohapool, cotton market, subhash road, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Rajvilas Cinema – nagpur mahal, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Panch Sheel – wardha road, Nagpur, India
‎12:30‎ – ‎3:30‎ – ‎6:30‎ – ‎9:30pm‎
Inox Tuli Mall – kamptee road, nagpur, Nagpur, India
‎1:00‎ – ‎2:25‎ – ‎3:10‎ – ‎4:05‎ – ‎6:15‎ – ‎7:10‎ – ‎9:20‎ – ‎10:15pm‎
Inox Poonam Mall – poonam mall, Nagpur, India
‎1:00‎ – ‎3:10‎ – ‎4:05‎ – ‎6:15‎ – ‎7:10‎ – ‎8:30‎ – ‎9:20‎ – ‎10:15pm‎

Gunday : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

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Highway : A road less traveled

Star Cast: Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda
Director: Imtiaz Ali

Imtiyaz Ali is one of the most important directors in today’s Hindi Film Industry. His incredible success in recent past has created a fan follower which expects mushy love stories with melodious songs from him. With his humble beginning from “Socha Na Tha” which launched Abhay Deol, Imtiyaz tasted success in his second film “Jab We Met” which helped Kareena Kapoor to erase “POO” from public’s memory and replace it with “Geet”. Imtiyaz’s formula of new age romance with the protagonists being confused about whether they are in love or not continued with his subsequent movies “Love Aaj Kal” and “Rockstar” (though Rockstar had a huge canvas apart from that). Another element of his movies is journey. The characters are either on run or in a journey in most part of the movie. In his new movie “Highway”, these 2 elements are still there. It is an unusual love story as well as it has a lot of travel across length and breadth of north India.

Imtiyaz Ali is credited for Story, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction of “Highway”. As per his interview this story has been with him since 12 years when he made half hour episode for a television serial “Rishtey” in 1999. He thought of many ways of telling this story considering it via multiple genres including big action film. Finally, Imtiyaz settled on telling this story sans anything else and stuck to the journey of his protagonists and finding themselves on the way. It’s a coming-of-age movie.

The story is based on a thin premise that a girl who is kidnapped finds freedom in the captivity. Veera Tripathi (Alia Bhat) is city girl from very influential and rich family who has never been real open world. Even their travels, the family stays in hotels only. Veera has a craving for the road and open air. She insists her fiancée for a long drive on which she gets kidnapped by Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda). But she feels free in this captivity and eventually falls in love with him. The story is not about what happens next but how things happen and the overall experience the Director creates for us.

The story is interesting and but screenplay could have been better. Though the movie keeps the audience interested, it does not entertain them per say. Few more scenes of cameraderie and fun on the way could have solved that purpose. Even a little more details of Mahabir’s backstory could have provided the much needed drama.

Though the screenplay lacks in happening and entertaining content, Director Imtiyaz Ali makes up for it by the experience he creates for the audience. The film moves across 6 states, many unseen locations and breath taking landscapes. With his cinematographer Anil Mehta, Imtiyaz takes us through a journey unforgettable. While doing so, he also makes a strong statement on all that is wrong in the society without even showing any of that visually. All trough the movie, he makes us think how far we have came away from the beautiful world that has been created for us by the All-mighty. He not shows how cut off we are from real world out of the city but also gives hint of how the side effects of civilisation is creating a rich-poor divide which is giving birth to many oppressors. It also throws light on how even the well heeled too are suffocated under the pretence of today’s society and how there are dangerous criminals hidden within regular public. Take a bow Mr. Director for this.

A. R. Rahman and Imitiyaz Ali created magic in “Rockstar” which raised the expectations about this film’s music a lot. Though the music is good, the Rahman-Imtiyaz Ali combo fails to give multiple hit songs. Also, as the film has less things happening on screen, lack of many good songs is felt drastically. This is the second part where film is lacking.

Performance wise this is an Alia Bhat film all the way. She breathe the character and brings it alive on screen. Randeep Hooda impresses with his top notch performance too. However he gets very little significant to do than watch Alia from distance. Other actors playing roles of Aadoo (Durgesh Kumar), Tonk (Pradeep Nagar), Goru (Saharsha Kumar Shukla) does perfect justice to their job.

Overall, “Highway” is a very well made and very important film of our era. It shall be India’s entry to Oscars this year.

Rating and Recommendation:

“Highway” is a complicated film to review. It’s hard to rate. Rather it shall not be rated because it is not just a film but is an experience. It needs to be experienced and felt. And if I may say, only a few can feel it. So everyone who look for quality cinema which is unique and different, do go for this movie.

Highway : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Shadi ke Side Effects : sequel ke side effects

Few are sequel movies are better or even as good as its first instalment. “Pyar ke Side Effects” was a very high quality product which is an example of good urban love story in Bollywood. It also was one of the first movie to start trend of unique and unusual pairing of lead actor and actress. Pairing of the mallika of a Bombshell image, Mallika Sherawat with the crusader of cinema of substance, Rahul Bose, created ripples at that time. They both did justice to their roles and along with the script, direction and music, that filmedwas a great success.

The producers of the original movie “Pritish Nandi Communications” aka PNC, this time joined hands with Balaji Motion Pictures to come up with sequel for the earlier blockbuster. This time the actors are even bigger i.e. Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan play Sid and Trisha. Sid and Trisha has rocking chemistry and love story which happily gets converted into marriage. They both are enjoying their youthful and promising life and are looking forward to next steps in their careers. But destiny has some other plans and they get the news that they are going to be parents. Sid really tries hard to take care of Trisha and be an understanding husband. However, once the baby girl “Mili” arrives, their life changes drastically. Sid starts missing the happy-go-lucky, fun loving Trisha who turns into a nutcase taking care of her baby. Her perspective totally changes and she sees life only from Mili’s angle. Sid gets fade up and shares his problem with Trisha’s brother-in-law Ranvir (Ram Kapoor). Ranvir gives him a weird but effective solution which brings back happiness in Sid’s Life. What happens after that shall be watched on screen.

The story is simple and sweet like the 1st Film. However, what made “Pyar ke side Effects” fun was the screenplay, characterisation and overall treatment. Saket Chaudhary who had written and directed the earlier film, has come up with this story in collaboration with Zeenat Lakhani. He has also penned the screenplay with her and Arshad Shayed who has also taken care of Dialogues. Smart, Witty Humour which does not make you laugh your guts out but keeps a continuous smile on your face, was the strength of PKSE. With a 3 people team, SKSE failed to achieve that level but still keeps the audience interested.

Saket has made his earlier film lively by a sharp, urban and stylish presentation of it. This time, he has failed to keep that innovation in the narrative. A small story has been stretched to 2 hr 25 min. A crisp 2 hr duration would have been much better for the movie. Having said that, he is able to keep the on screen proceedings interesting with sprinkling of humour which makes the film a good once a watch.

Performance wise Farhan Akhtar delivers what is required out of him. He is loveable as loyal husband who also wants to live his youthful life as it was before being a parent. However, as per his on screen life, audience too get to very less of Vidya as the story is written completely from Sid’s Point of view. In a way, does it prove that the writers did not find anything interesting in a woman’s life when she is engrossed in early development of her child? Vidya does her job couldn’t leave a mark. In fact, there is not much to take away in both lead actors role in this film.

Best part of the movie is Manav (Vir Das) who adds some masala to the movie. Ram Kapoor impresses with his controlled performance. Purab Kohli as Shekhar is apt. After long, we get to see Gautami Kapoor as Ranvir’s wife. Most cute and lovely baby actors are baby Anushka Gavad, baby Mahi Bhanushali, baby Aayra Mehta, baby Angel Fernandes, baby Pranjal Parab and baby Hetavi Bhanushali who play Mili’s character in different ages.

Music by Pritam misses the mark this time. Barring ‘Harry’s not a brahmachari’ and ‘Tauba main vyah karke pachhtaya’, not other song lingers in our mind. Manoj Lobo and Rishi Punjabi has done good work in cinematography. Production quality is top notch.

Overall, it is a good film which couldn’t be a great film.

Rating :

Recommendation : It is a clean film to watch with whole family. If you are a movie buff who can’t miss a movie, do watch it. Though a little bit stretched, you will enjoy it.But if you are the kind demanding every worth of the penny, prefer to watch it on Cable/DVD.

Directed by Saket Chaudhary
Produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor & Pritish Nandy
Written by Saket Chaudhary
Starring : Farhan Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor & Vir Das
Music by Pritam

Showtimes

Pvr Empress City Mall
empress city mall, opposite raman science centre gandhi sagar lake, Nagpur
9:00 10:00 10:55am 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:05 10:05 11:00pm

Cinemax Eternity Mall
eternity mall, variety square, sitabudi, Nagpur
9:30 10:15 11:00am 12:30 2:00 3:30 5:00 6:30 8:00 9:30 11:00pm

Jaya Shree
near lohapool, cotton market, subhash road, Nagpur
12:30 3:30 6:30 9:30pm

Rajvilas Cinema
nagpur mahal, Nagpur
12:30 3:30 6:30 9:30pm

Inox Tuli Mall
kamptee road, nagpur, Nagpur
9:30 10:30am 12:30 1:30 2:20 3:30 4:30 6:30 7:30 8:30 9:30 10:30pm

Inox Poonam Mall
poonam mall, Nagpur
9:00 10:15am 12:00 1:15 3:00 4:15 6:00 7:15 9:00 10:15pm

Shadi ke Side Effects : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Gulaab Gang : Commercial Masala Potboiler

Director: Soumik Sen
Producer: Anubhav Sinha
Music composed by: Soumik Sen
Screenplay: Amitosh Nagpal, Soumik Sen
Cast : Madhuri Dixit (Rajjo),Juhi Chawla (Sumitra Devi),Sumitra Devi,Tannishtha Chatterjee,Priyanka Bose (Sandhya),Sandhya,Divya Jagdale

In the past, a lot of films were based on subject of small villages being exploited by local politicians. Recently too Bollywood is scouting for similar stories in quest of a hero-villain drama which is lacking in civilised urban setting. But barring few exceptions, these are all male oriented films. Gulab Gang is one such rare movie where the hero of the movie is female. Not only that, she does everything like singing, dancing, fighting like any other hero.

Being inspired from the story of Gulabi Gang but not a biographic, Gulaab Gang is an out and out commercial product but with a strong message about women empowerment and need to stand against everything that is wrong. Earlier it was said that the film is based on Sampat Pal’s life, but the creators denied this, saying that he is inspired by to her work but the movie is not based on her life.

Story, Screenplay, Direction is by Soumik Sen who debuts as Director with this movie. He has also written the Dialogues with Amitosh Nagpal. Apart from that, he has not only composed the music of the film but also written and composed a song “Teri Jai Ho”. Uff, I am exhausted even while writing this.

The story of Gulaab Gang does not dwell much on how Rajjo (Madhuri Dixit) who is eager to get educated, starts an ashram for abused women who are thrown out of house by husbands, raped by sex mongers or ousted by society for any other reason. They wear pink saris produced by themselves and hence are fondly called as “Gulaab Gang”. Rajjo is ably supported by her sub-ordinates Mahie (Divya Jagdale) and Sandhya (Priyanka Bose). The story of Gulaab Gang starts from the incidence where the gang has to intervene to get electricity back to the village which was cut by an officer (Atul Srivastava) willing to extract bribe from the villagers. Then it shows various such events like supporting a woman, Kajri (Tannishtha Chatterjee) after being thrown out of home, rescuing of trucks with stolen grocery from ration stores, etc.

However, the story picks up after Sumitra Devi (Juhi Chawala) enters the scene. She is supposed to marry her sister with Arun Shankar who is son of the local politician Pawan Shankar (Joginder Singh) who is her party candidate from that area. However, Pawan Shankar’s son Arun Shankar (Sudev Nair) rapes Fiza (Tanvi Rao). On Sumitra Devi’s visit to Pawan Shankar about the marriage proposal, Rajjo gatecrashes and makes her aware of the misdeed of Arun. Contrary to Rajjo’s expectation, Sumitra takes Pawan’s Side and offers her compensation for the rape of Fiza. What happens next forms the tussle between Rajjo and Sumitra Devi.

While the first of the movie forms activities of Gulaab Gang as mentioned above, the second half is about its struggle when Rajjo decides to enter in politics. The story does not have highs and lows and moves at same level. The screen play repeats the similar scenes of Gangs intervention in different kind of injustice and then a song and dance sequence (which I feel was totally unnecessary but the Director could not keep away himself from it as he is the music composer and Madhuri is known for her moves). However, Director Soumik Sen makes up for it by powerful taking of the scenes and powerful editing by Cheragh Todiwala. A film which could’ve been easily an art house cinema is turned into a commercial masala potboiler by the Director. I am happy that he does not pretend to be making an art house cinema and does what he feels. Nonetheless, he does good job in his debut as Director. Can expect more powerful commercial cinema from him if he gets better scripts and music (maybe by hiring different experts for that)

Music by Soumik Sen is ok but the songs are hindrance in the narration. I think the songs will grow on you with multiple listening but does not help in the movie. Lyrics (Neha Saraf, Soumik Sen and Shreya Narayan) is hard to understand due to rural flair. Choreography by Saroj Khan is ok. Makes it more drab and dull. Cinematography by Alphonse Roy is great. Action by Parvez Shaikh and Feroz are good. Though if Soumik had shown a bit of physical training of the Gang, the action would have been more believable.

The movie is watchable due to strong performances by not only the leading ladies but also by the supporting cast too. Madhuri essays the powerful role with ease and displays varied emotions effortlessly. Watch her when her face lits up with the mention of a promise to build school. Watch her when she gets unexpected reply from Juhi when she complains about the rape. Watch her in her fights. She did full justice to the role. I only did not like the sequences in which she breaks into a song every now and then. It was totally uncalled for. Juhi Chawala portrays the villainous Sumitra Devi remarkably. She is pure evil whenever she comes on screen. Though her character is diluted when she’s shown seating like a Don in party office with her supporters and when she leads the attack at the climax and wields a machine gun. She is shown clever enough to keep out of picture while dealing with all the dirty work, then why would she get her hands soaked in blood? I understand that the Director clearly wanted to play to the galleries but now even the single screen first row audience too can not digest such irregularities. Juhi sure will be nominated and may win few awards for best actor in negative role category.

Though everyone from the supporting cast done their job perfectly, a special mention is due for Divya Jagdale and Priyanka Bose who plays left and right hand of Rajjo. Soumik Sen must be applauded for extracting great performances by the cast. It is also a job well done by casting director Prashant Singh.

Overall, Gulaab Gang is an out an out commercial movie which has underlining message of women empowerment, need for education and eradication of corruption from society. I request you to wait and watch the complete end titles which pays tributes to women who are making difference in some or the other way.

Recommendation: Do watch it for the story it brings on screen and for the message it has. People expecting art house cinema must refrain from the movie.

Prashen H. Kyawal

Gulaab Gang : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Queen : Delightful piece of Art and Entertainment

Director: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Kangna Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao

Critics do not critique a movie because they like them. Contrary, they do it because they love movies. We want every movie to be good and get affected severely by it not turning out good. We know movie making is most expensive art and we want the privileged ones who can make them to know the feedback on their creations for betterment in future. Seldom a movie comes which we want to applaud wholeheartedly and enjoy it just as an audience.

“Queen” is one such movie. And is another product by big corporate meeting quality cinema creators. After the successful collaboration of mainstream with quality cinema in “Hasee to Phasee”, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane join hands with Viacom 18 for “Queen”. They again prove that love for cinema coupled with good production and distribution strength can do wonders both at quality of cinema as well as box office.

Written by Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar and Parveez Sheikh, “Queen” is a coming of age, travel movie. Judging from promo, I predicted it could be a mix of themes from “Cocktail” (a Stranded Girl in an unknown country) and “English-Vinglish” (A woman is liberated by the ways in new country and yes, impresses via culinary skills). My prediction is proven true but good news is, the makers have made the movie even better.

The story is about traditionally raised Rajouri Girl, Rani who is called Queen (Kangana Ranaut) by her fiancee Vijay (Rajkumar Rao). On the day of her marriage, Vijay breaks up with her leaving her shattered. The already low on confidence Rani decides to use her Honeymoon Tickets and travel as planned earlier, albeit alone (as she says “Main apane honeymoon pe akeli aayi hun”). In her hotel, she befriends with Vijayalakshmi (Lisa Haydon) who is a Hot single mother with Indian genes from her father’s side. Vijaya shows her around paris and helps her gain enough confidence to travel to Amsterdam alone. In Amsterdam, Rani stays in hostel where she shares room with 3 male room mates Oleksander (Mish Boyko), Taka (Jeffrey Ho) and Tim (Guitobh Joseph). She also meets Marcello (Marco Canadea) who is Chef and owns a restaurant. Marcello gets angry with Rani for not liking her food. Later they befriend each other at a cooking competition.

While Rani is having all these life altering experiences and discovering new things about the world, life and herself, Vijay gets back interest in her after seeing her picture in modern outfit which she sends to him by mistake. He tries to find her across Paris and Amsterdam when she does not pick his calls.

What happens with Vijay and Rani? Do they get back again?

Generally I do not tell story of the movie so elaborately. But as you can see there is not much twists and turns in the story which needs to be hidden. The magic of this film is in the Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction. It is a travel film which needs to be experienced and to have fun with.

All 3 writers deserves applause for writing somewhat unique story and an exemplary screenplay. Small comic/drama events and detailed characterisation (do notice Chintu, Rani’s brother),  of each role makes this movie enjoyable throughout its length. This again underlines the fact that not only the roles of the lead actors but the surrounding characters are equally important for a good movie. And all this is supported in equally good strength by the Dialogue writers (Anvita Dutt and Kangana Ranaut).

Even though the screenplay is strong, Director Vikas Bahl does not only rely on it. He takes it even further and demonstrates remarkable skills is bring real life fun on celluloid. Slice of life films and travel films are by default hard to make. It is hard to recreate the moments one lives through that travel. But Vikas Bahl proves that Cinema is a Director’s Medium and serves his audience with an enjoyable fair. Notice the scenes when Rani dances teasing the taxi driver outside the dance club or when she skypes with her parents who are having power outage at home, the shot where Oleksander puts beer in his “Golgappe” aka paanipuri, etc.

His editing team Abhijit Kokate and Anurag Kashyap gives him powerful support with perfect editing. I feel special proud to mention that Abhijit Kokate is our own Nagpuri Boy. I see him going places after this movie. More power to you, Abhijit.

Music and Background score by Amit Trivedi is great. The song “London Thumkada” is already on charts. The remixed version of “Hungama Ho gaya” will make you feel like dancing with Rani. Thought other songs could have been better. Bosco-Caesar have choreographed the songs according to the characterisation. Cinematography in a travel film is very important and here Bobby Singh and Siddharth Diwan did excellent job at it.

Having talked about all technical departments, last but not the least is performances by the actors and this movie belongs to Kangana Ranaut. Kangana is as important to this movie as the Director itself. She lends sincerity, innocence, vulnerability to Rani and lives her life on screen. She gets under the skin of the character and makes the audience forget whatever different images she had in past. And boy, what a body of work Kangana has. From the depressed, alcoholic urban girls in Gangster, Woh Lamhe, Metro and Fashion to Retro gangster wife in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai to the outwardly and strong bride in Tanu Weds Manu, she has done different characters effectively. However, this film will put her in league of top actresses who can carry female centric films.

Equally good as Kangana is Lisa Haydon who essays the role of free-spirited VijayaLaxmi. Rajkumar Rao as Vijay does justice to his role. Master Chinmaya Agarwal does good job as Chintu.  All other actors lend equal good support to the movie, however we need to mention Marco Canadea who gives the screen a different shine whenever he there.

If we get to discuss the shortcomings of the movie, we will find few like story does not having much graph or feeling stuck on the travel/party scenes. Barring such few niggles, the movie is near perfect. Initially, I thought the Director should have opted for subtitles for the foreign languages but then I understood it was to make audience feel the trouble Rani going through in a Foreign Country.

Overall, “Queen” is lite, entertaining and subtly gives a message that not all we feel bad is bad unless we go there and experience it. It gives you chance to experience the life of a backpacker, from your comfy chair, with all the fun and troubles in it. What more can we ask for?

Recommendation: Go watch this movie. You will feel happy, lite and optimistic.

 Note: While you enjoy this movie about troubles and fun of the privileged ones living in city, who can afford foreign travel just to find themselves, do try to watch how the non-privileged ones are suffering due to lack of basic resources and still rising above it all in “Gulaab Gang”.

Queen : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Bewakoofiyaan : Goodie, goodie, urban love story

His life is perfect. He has a prospering career, a hot and stylish girlfriend who is earning more than he does, cool friend circle and a new promotion. Things are going just as he dreamt of for Mohit Chadhdha (Ayushmannn Khurrana). However, to take his love with his girlfriend Mayera Sehgal (Sonam Kapoor), he needs to please her father V. K. Sehgal (Rishi Kapoor) who is an IAS officer with strict conditions for his would be son-in-law. He wants him to be rich and perfect in every sense for her daughter. Mayera wants Mohit to ask her Dad about permission to marry with her. Mohit tries for it and then begins his Var-Pariksha by Mr. Sehgal. In the mean time, Mohit looses job and then as per Mayera’s wish they hide that news from Mr. Sehgal. What happens then is the story of Bewakoofiyaan.

Habib Faisal, one of the writers of Yash Raj Films is in love with Delhi and stories about middle class. His protagonists are urban working class girl and boy who face real life problems. His stories are straight from life and those can happen to anyone. While does so, he also brings fore value systems of India which is getting lost with acceptance of western ways. In a sense, his stories are more connected with reality. Sometimes he succeeds in telling such stories like in “Do Dooni Chaar” or say “Band Baja Baaraat”, Sometimes those are average films like “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl” or flops like “Ta Ra Rum Pum” or “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”

Such subjects and stories have been given preference by Aditya Chopra since he is at the helm of Yash Raj Films. He broke the typical Bollywood Star Studded Romance framework set by his father Yash Chopra and moved more towards small real life stories. As he has a studio to run, he has set such targets of 3-5 big films like Dhoom or a SRK film, 3-5 mid budget films and 3-5 small budget films. Habib’s stories suit well for small to mid budget films and few of them worked for YRF. You can sense this from the marketing style also. When promotions are low, you can easily guess the film is low budget hence YRF does not want to increase cost and risk by unwanted marketing expenditure. There they just let their Brand pull the audience with normal promotional activities. If by word of mouth film does good like in “Band Baja Baaraat”, they earn in multifold and if film does stick to theatres, still they make money.

“Bewakoofiyaan” also released without much buzz so you can sense that it is a small budget film for YRF. It is an important film for “Ayushmann Khuranna as it’s his first YRF film and he needs a good hit after the miraculous “Vicky Donor”

The story of the film is good but again it is same idea which was used in “Ta Ra Rum Pum”. There Saif Ali Khan looses his racing career and confidence and faces poverty but lies to his kids telling them they are in a reality show where they’ve to portray as poor. Here, Hero has to portray all is well in his life to win over his lover’s father. Same premise, but the settings and scale is different. While the earlier film was full blown big budget movie, this one is a small little film. However, Habib Faisal could not do much magic in the screenplay and it lacks in excitement and drama. Again the film has only 3 main characters and film revolves around them. Supporting roles which generally add jazz to the film aren’t etched in much details. Screenplay fails to keep audience entertained. He could’ve shown Mohit starting computer classes for the elders taking the thread of him teaching Mr. Sehgal forward. Also he could’ve shown Mr. Sehgal understudying the pressures of today’s job market with his own failures at job hunting. He getting the job in first attempt and Mayera’s career always on boom further confirms that Mohit is a failure.

Director Nupur Asthana did fair job in putting up the screenplay on screen and with Editor Antara Lahiri presented a crisp 2 hr movie. But that’s about it. She couldn’t do anything to make the movie a little more fun than it is. Romance, Drama, Comedy everything moves at a same level and does not excite the audience. Just because of the snappy duration, audience does not get irritated and bored. Otherwise, it could’ve been a disaster.

YRF was synonymous with good music but because Aditya Chopra does not have ears of his father, music of his films are now either average or bad. I strangle advise YRF that they outsource the music department to someone like Mahesh Bhatt or similar, like they outsourced Casting department to Shanoo Sharma. Infact such small movies can be much better with good songs. Music by Raghu Dixit has nothing to take back home. Background Music by Hitesh Sonik is just good enough.

Casting by Shanoo Sharma, except the main 3 characters, is average this time around. The surrounding characters do not leave much impact except the ones who play Mohit’s friend and Mr. Sehgal’s secretary. Performance by Ayushmann, Sonam and Rishi Kapoor is equally good.

Production Design by Mukund Gupta good. Production quality is top notch. Cinematography by Naha Parti Matiyani is good. Costume by Ellawadi Leepakshi is good especially the ones for Sonam.

Overall, “Bewakoofiyaan” is a small urban love story where everyone is goodie goodie. As per the title, there are no entertaining Bewakoofiyaan in the film. The bikini scene by Sonam also can not do much to salvage the film.

Rating :

Recommendation : It’s a nice, zippy movie which can be watched if you can not live without watching movies every week. Good for couples who love mushy romance. Infact it has a good lesson too.

Otherwise, you can just skip it and wait for it to watch on Cable TV or DVD.

Note:  Such small budget films shall have even lesser ticket prices.

Bewakoofiyaan : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Ragini MMS2 : Pushes the Erotic Envelop Further and scares in climax

Ragini MMS2 is a clever product put together by a clever production house. It is a production house which focuses on getting its production budget right. Spending where required only and still creating buzz by having some or the other USP in their product. Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Motion Pictures and ALT Entertainment knows the pulse of her television and movie audience. While see is accused for her regressive serials on television, her cinema is bold and controversial. Ragini MMS was a small low budget film on the controversial subject of MMS at that time. So the controversy and cleverly planted stories of shooting in a haunted house were the USP to pull audience. Ragini MMS2 has Sunny Leone as the USP and relies on (or rather exploits) her porn star image, 2 chart buster songs and PR stories about erotic scenes in movie to guarantee a good opening for the movie.

In Ragini MMS, a boy, Uday makes MMS of his girlfriend, Ragini in a remotely located house and it goes viral. Uday gets killed and Ragini is sent to mental asylum as she keeps on talking about some witch killing the boy.

Ragini MMS 2 takes the movie forward and tries to answer the questions about the witch which were kept unanswered in the first movie. Writers Suhani Kanwar and Tanweer Bookwala take Balaji Motion Pictures’ own story of making a film on real life controversy about MMS and taking a porn star as actress. They mix it with the PR story created for first movie about having spooky experiences while shooting and create the plot for this sequel. So a full of himself Producer named Rocks (Pravin Dabas) like the idea given by his Film Writer Satya (Saahil Prem) and the decides to stay and shoot at the original location of the MMS incidence with his heroine Sunny (Sunny Leone) and others.

While they are staying their and shooing the film, spooky incidences happen with many crew members including Sunny. But Rocky ridicules and pushes them to continue working. In the mean while, Sunny gets closer to Satya and love blossoms in them. In parallel, Ragini’s (Kainaz Motivala) psychiatrist Dr (Divya Dutta) is trying to get to the bottom of her story.

So what happens to all of them is the story of Ragini MMS2. The story is repeated in many movies and but a good screenplay can still give birth to a great horror movie. But Screenplay of Ragini MMS2 is faulty and uninspiring. Still few comic scenes and witty dialogs are able to keep us entertained.

Director Bhushan Patel takes inspiration from bad horror movies than good ones. Rather than creating a rock solid original film, he borrows heavily from Ramsay Brothers’ movies in past and new Hollywood movies. He gives laughable logic to facilitate suspension of disbelief, but those fall flat. He has kept the movie short and crisp with sharp editing by Editor Tushar Shivan and sprinkled it with erotic, horror and comedy scenes which keep us till the end. In second half, he gets the grip back and delivers a punch.

The biggest problem with the film is casting by Aadore Mukherjee Mehra. Apart from Sunny, Divya Dutta, Sandhya Mrudul, Karan Mehra (As Karan, the Television Star), Kainaz Motivala and Anita Hassanandani, all other actors are misfits. Parvin Dabas hams, Saahil Prem proves he can not act, Soniya Mehra has nothing to do. Even bigger problem is Director Bhushan Patel failed in extracting good performances from the good actors also. Still Sandya Mrudul and Karan Mehra manages to impress in their respective roles. Karan gets lucky to have full blown hot shower scene with Sunny and Sandya surprises with the lip lock. Saahil Prem is the weakest actor in the film and we keep thinking how and why he is casted in a Hero’s role. Divya Dutta couldn’t do much as her role is weak at writing stage. Still she tries to keep things classy. Anita looks good in her heavily tattooed and pierced styling and does her job well.

As far as Sunny is concerned, she’s USP Ragini MMS 2 and the film relies on her. She definitely burns the screen when it comes to steamy scenes and impresses in scary scenes. She is good in scenes without dialogs (no pun intended) but is flat in expressions in dialog driven scenes. I think 1-2 films with good Directors who can extract best out of their actors can carve Sunny into a good actress, but she is still not there yet. I read that this film is last Erotic film by Sunny but I will advise her against it. She enjoys great patronage by audience for her image. Till she transforms into an artist of substance, she will need this patronage to get audience to theatres and in turn to get more films to sustain her career.

It’s good that film has few songs and 2 are already hit on the charts. Sunny sizzles in ‘Baby Doll’ by Meet Brothers and Yo Yo entertains with his swag in ‘Char Bottle Vodka’. Background score in horror films plays a significant role and Amar Mohile, who is by now expert in such projects, does very good work. Cinematography and VFX are good. Production quality is good enough.

Overall, the film has few good steamy scenes, comic scenes and scary scenes but could have been great with better screenplay, casting and performances. Film has a good second half which gets you out of the theatre in satisfactory mood. However, if you watch western horror films extensively, you may not like this.

Rating :

Recommendation : This film is presented as Horex (Horror+Sex) movie. It pushes the envelop of on screen sex a lot further. Watching Sunny playing her forte on big screen is a different experience. It is a paisa vasool film for Sunny Leone and Indian Horror movie fans. I would say it is worth a watch if you can ignore the dull part, ham scenes and bad performances. Strictly for adults.

Ragini MMS2 : Movie Review by Prashen H. Kyawal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Youngistaan : interesting concept wasted by unimaginative screenplay

Directed : Syed Ahmad Afzal
Cast : Jackky Bhagnani, Neha Sharma, Farooq Sheikh, Kayoze Irani

A you game developer, Abhimanyu Kaul (Jackky Bhagnani), having a hip and happening life in Japan along with his live-in girlfriend Anwita Chauhan (Neha Sharma) is happy with his work hard and party harder lifestyle. One night when he is passed out after a lot of drinks, he gets a life changing call from India. The call is about his father, Dashrat Kaul (Boman Irani) who is apparently the Prime Minister of India, on the death bed. Abhimanyu rushes to New Delhi where he had to take the responsibility of leading his father’s political party and the chair of the Prime Minister. His girlfriend Anwita has to bear a lot of problems due to the protocols and is hidden from the media because of the thought that an Indian Prime Minister cannot have live-in relationship.

However, Abhimanyu who is learning the ropes of his new job with the help of his father’s PA Akbar Ahmad (Farooque Shaikh), soon starts leading in his way and makes sure that he gives justice to both his public and private life. How he does all this is the story of Youngistaan.

The story at the concept level is intriguing and the writer trio of Ramiz Ilham Khan, Syed Ahmed Afzal and Maitrey Bajpai tries hard to put it in the screenplay. But they falter at the screenplay part. It keeps shuttling between Abhimanyu’s Public and Private life that means one scene of him as Prime Minister and another handling problems and demands of Anwita. Much part of the movie proceeds like this and you start recognising this format. But you are looking for the movie to pick up at some point and it never does. The writers couldn’t improvise the concept into and interesting screenplay and it just moves at a plain pace till the end.

Writer-Director Syed Ahmed Afzal directs the subject sensibly and with understanding that such movie can be easily turned into a laughing stock if not handled carefully. Credit shall go to him that he saved the movie from that disaster. With his Cinematographer Aalendhu Chaudhary, he chose an earthy look and feel for the movie which goes with the subject. Had he made it glossy with plasticky colours, it would have been very unbelievable. As a Director, he also succeeded in getting decent performances from his cast. With all these browny points at his credit, the movie still falters because of weak screenplay and writers inability to put meat into the material. As it is his debut film, we can expect better work from him if he gets better scripts.

Speaking of the cast, the best part of the movie is Late Farooque Shaikh. He plays his part with ease and gives gravity to the scene whenever he is in it. However his role is reduced to giving appreciating glances to Abhimanyu. It is unfortunate that we lost this brilliant actor who started to get back in the industry with Club 60 and Youngistaan. He gets a highly deserved tribute at the start of the film.

As far the lead pair, both Jackky Bhagnani and Neha Sharma done a decent job but that’s about it. They do not feel irreplaceable in their roles. That means even if there was someone else to play their roles, it would have been fine. The supporting cast have roles inspired from real life like Shubhodeep Ganguly (played by Deepankar De) seems like Pranab Mukharji, Murli Mukundan (by Prakash Belawadi)  feels like P. Chidambaram, etc. Both of them do good job. Boman Irani is Ok. Mita Vashisht (as Suhasini Singh Deo) is wasted. Brijendra Kala (as Desram) and the actor playing PM’s bodyguard impresses in the mataka kulfi scene.

Music of the movie is given by an ensemble team of Music Directors (Jeet Ganguli, Shiraz Uppal, Sneha Khanwalkar and Shree Ishq) but still does not have much to take home. But this movie will be remembered for the song “Suno Na Sangemarmar” and will have a long shelf life. Another gem from Singer Arijit Singh and Lyricist Kausar Munir. Salim-Sulaiman are effective as Background Music Composer. Production design is good. The UN meeting is shot in actual location and looks impressive.

Overall, it is a movie which you can bear for its innovative subject line and short timespan (around 2 hrs) but is marred by unimaginative writing.

Rating :  

Recommendation : I think you will be better off skipping this movie in theatres and catching it on satellite or DVD. If you have not watch other films released in earlier weeks, you can catch them this week. Do refer our reviews before you decide which one to watch.

Youngistaan movie review by Prashen H. Kyawal