Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal ( Movie Review)

If you can overlook the outrageous suggestion that Nana Patekar could be Om Puri's son then you're in for some clean healthy wholesome and engaging fun in this comic drama about a stranger who walks into a Catholic village and changes malfunctional lives with his positivity .

Does the reformation in the Church theme ring a bell? Films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee(Anand, Bawarchi, Budha Mil Gaya, Khubsoorat) attempted the same theme of the whimsical but endearing stranger who walks in with an eccentric agenda to change jaded lives.

Priyadarshan's parodic populace is a city of eccentricity. Rural or urban, the characters are whimsical, stubborn,and oddly out of step with the socio-political reality of the world that they seem to inhabit from the fringes without being able to position themselves in the mainstream.

Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal (KDM) gives us Priyan's people at their quirkiest. There is a farmer Om Puri , his wife(Sona Nair) two daughters and a wastrel of a son(played with superb slothfulness by Shreyas Talpade) in whose life comes a dark brooding stranger Nana Patekar who be any of many things....a long-lost brother,an unwanted bother,a ghost from another world, a blast from the past, a foodie who clean-sweeps all the food on the table...fast! Leaving Om Puri's family pooree aghast.

It is interesting to see how Priyadarshan brings into play a small church-based village community's affinity to religion,courtship and domestic politics. Here is a village sustaining itself at the grassroots with spirited hilarity,often self-directed. Though a little tongue-in-cheek if not altogether blasphemous, I was tickled by the heroine's female body-guard(Pratima Kazmi)'s one-sided passion for the priest played with Asrani in an ill-fitting cassock.This audacious plot-track was more outrageously comical than newbie Madhurima Bannerjee's endless courtship with the eminently unlikeable wimp(Talpade).


This isn't the first Priyadarshan film where the pampered heiress is protected from male attention by her slew of bullying brothers. Earlier Kareena Kapoor was similarly cordoned off from Akshaye Khanna's attention in Hulchal .

Recurrent themes often give Priyadarshan comedies a sinking sense of sameness. KDM is one of Priyadarshan's better potboilers in recent times. KDM is a remake of a Malayalam film Marykundoro Kunjaado. Priyan hasn't been able to do away with a regional flavour in the story. The cloistered gossip-mongering Keral village may seem odd to Hindi-speaking audiences. But the film has been shot by R.Ganesh in a beautiful lakeside township .There are lush images of fields and meadows.The climactic chase catches Nana and Shreyas running through a harvest-ready field in the dead of the night. It's an arresting image, framed and shot with care.

Though Neeraj Vora's dialogues have seen better digs, they capture the ethos of eccentric antics well. The actors are all in the mood to have fun.


Tucked away in this rumbustious drama of mistaken identity and godforsaken raillery is a message on trust, belief and honesty. All of this is put forward with zero dependence on vulgarity.The double meaning is restricted to the ambivalence of the characters. The principal actors specially Nana Patekar(duly deadpan), Shreyas Talpade(blissfully and brazenly selfserving),Om Puri(incredibly unselfconscious), Paresh Rawal(wickedly ironic) and Neera Vora(a scream as a coffin maker who prays for the dying to be dead) get into the swing of things. They lend a layering to the laughter.

An interesting film, and far superior to the prolific Priyadarshan's other recent comedies like De Dana Dan,Khatta Meetha and the prequel to KDM, Malaamaal Weekly. Credit:http://www.santabanta.com/

Oh My God (Movie Review)

It's ironical that Oh My God releases just at a time when our city's Ganpati Bappa celebrations are at a jumpingum pumpingum peak. As we keep getting bombarded with Jai Ganeshaay and Omkar Swarupa aartis and traffic jams at every corner, it's pretty easy to warm to OMG's theme - its strong debate against idol worship, blind superstition, divine bribes and glam spirituality. Oh, but it really turns out to be a pretty long statement. For a film with a straight single track linear story that is.

Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal in 'Oh My God'.

Kanji Lalji Mehta (Paresh Rawal) runs a small shop of artefacts in Chor Bazaar and thinks nothing of bluffing his way about to manipulate God-fearing people into buying his overpriced stuff. People around him mock him for his lack of faith in God and other divine powers.

One day Kanji's shop is destroyed in an earthquake. The insurance company refuses to honour his claim saying their claim is null in case of an act of God. Kanji decides to sue God (he goes to an advocate called Hanif Qureshi!) and a few religious trusts for compensation and sets in motion a nationwide movement, for and against idol worship. Then God (Akshay Kumar) decides to pay Kanji a visit and engages with him in a debate about spirituality and faith.


Great idea. It's worked very well as a play. It makes many relevant points about the widespread corruption and money mismanagement in religious charitable trusts and wastage of food in religious activities. But the concept hasn't translated so well on film. The verbal volleys that would be so spontaneous and impactful in the play aren't working that well in the film.

The biggest problem is the bad picture. So many shots in this film - particularly the whole long courtroom climax - are totally grainy and blurred. Plus the quality of picture differs from scene to scene. For some reason Akshay's shot in some soft focus glow that looks out of sync with the rest of the film.

The second problem shows in the obvious continuity errors - the most glaring being: it's raining abundantly in the galli where Sonakshi is breaking a dahi handi but surprisingly dry where Kanji's son is breaking his handi merely two gallis away.

The high point of the film is its performances: Paresh Rawal is great; with his trademark wit and humour very much in place, he manages most of the show on his own. It's wonderful to just see him play his age this time. So is Kanji's friend Mahadeo (Ratnaparkhi).

Akshay looks chiknya as ever but there isn't really much of him. Godman I Govind Namdeo overacts as usual. In a rare role as an effeminate spiritual guru, Godman II Mithun Chakravarty manages to make a big impression, even with very few dialogues.

At the end of it, Umesh Shukla's film makes its point but ends up preachy. And frankly, the people who must watch it will be busy lining up barefoot for Bappa's darshan. Credit:http://www.santabanta.com

'Heroine' (Movie Review)

Madhur Bhandarkar's fascination for home-truths is known fact. Be it unseen or rather, unexplored world of bar dancers, the hind truths of media business and socialites, or the home truths of corporate sector and glamour aisles. Madhur has always succeeded in making his mark, by all his previous releases. 

After exhibiting his adroitness in conceptualising the home truths on celluloid, Madhur is once again here with a theme based on the hind side of showbiz. 

This time with Heroine, Madhur has tried to reveal the murkier secrets of an actresses' life, who has an ongoing tryst with agony and plight pertaining to personal and professional life. This much talked about cine cantata of Madhur, featuring Kareena, Randeep Hooda and Arjun Rampal opened with an occupancy of around 55% at multiplexes. 


There is widely prevailing notion about the showbiz which says that, darkness always prevails behind the spotlight. So is the story of Madhur's directional venture, Heroine, which is knitted around the voyage of an actress in the glittery lanes of showbiz. And her rendezvous with the dark side of fame and eminence. 

Heroine is tale of Mahi Arora (Kareena Kapoor) a prominent superstar of Bollywood, who has got all fragrances of goodies in her bunch of success blooms. Besides this Mahi suffers from bipolar disorder with mood swings, predominated by a sense of insecurity and loneliness. And the only source of soothing delight for Mahi is, her unconditional and everlasting dote on reigning superstar Aryan (Arjun Rampal). 

But as the story proceeds her insecurities start taking over the control of her life, where she lands up in a state of dilemma, due to sheer contradiction between her outer life and inner world which demands a soothing comfort of true love. As story moves ahead, her quest and longing for true love starts taking her to disastrous depths. 


After exhibiting his dexterity in handling the home-truths pertaining to glamour aisles, media industry, corporate world, and even the life of bar dancers this time Madhur some what failed in penning down a flawless script for one of the most over hyped cine flick of his career.

Infact the script of Heroine seems to be overly burdened with stereotypical element, showcasing those common features of "Madhur's type of cinema" for which homosexuality, Page-3 parties with gallons of liquor flowing, a gay fashion designers and bitchy celebs are a must. 

The script no where gives you a fragrance of freshness, rather it gets more and more monotonous with frames rolling ahead. Apart from it's characteristic resemblance with the previous cine cantatas of Madhur (especially Fashion). The script becomes monotonous, repetitive within itself also. 

With every successive sequence Heroine makes you feel that it is the same narrative which you have seen just a couple of minutes ago and the only difference lies in the shift of set. 


Even at times script of Heroine seems to be more of a gossip tabloid, which tries to take a dig at some of the real life incidents of Bollywood actress in order to authenticate its proclamation of being a reality based cine tale pertaining to Bollywood

In nutshell, contrary to his previous cine ideas which were thoroughly novel, this time Madhur has completely failed in knitting an entertaining script. 

With rhetoric pattern inspired from Socratian way of thinking, dialogues of Heroine may leave some impact upon you at one or two places but on the whole, masses are expected to get surprised by the phraseology, adopted by the ace director for this most ambitious project of his.

Well as far as screenplay and flow of the narration are concerned, then after having those award winning cine flicks like Fashion, Corporate, Page -3 and Chandini Bar in his kitty, this time Madhur has failed in meeting his own benchmark.


Though like typical Madhur Bhandarkar movies Heroine also begins with a curiosity raising sequence, providing a take off to audience apprehensions, but as the frames move ahead the onscreen substance seems to be divorcing from the reality, with everything kissing the horizons of obtruded melodrama.

Contrary Bhandarkar style of direction every single sequence of the film, Heroine is loaded with tonnes of predictability coated around it. Which is surely a disappointment for die hard Bhandarkar fans. With tons of soil from the previous grounds, Heroine once again showcased the feminine-traits of a designer, homosexuality, bitching celebs everything seems to be copy, pasted from his previous cine cantatas. 

As far as direction is concerned then in Heroine Madhur some what failed in extracting best from his protagonists. Though Kareena's oomph in movie was at all time best, but inspite of that her performance could have been better. Infact despite having the patronage of an ace director like Madhur, Kareena looked getting derailed from her performance track as the movie rolls ahead. 


With narration flowing ahead at snails pace and run time of around 2 hrs 30 minutes Heroine at times becomes so overburdening that, you simply feel like being punished. 

Clad with oodles of glamour around her, Kareena has looked scorching hot in the movie, but as far as her performance is concerned then up till an extent Bebo disappoints the fans who expected a memorable performance from her. 

As a superstar Arjun Rampal is proficient and leaves a thorough impression. And on the other hand Randeep Hooda too delivered a satisfactory in a brief, but significant role.

As far as supporting cast is concerned then Divya Dutta as a PR professional leaves an impact. 


In the music department, Heroine failed in making it to chart busters list. With Halkat Jawani as the pick of the deck, for those who relish soft and soothing tunes, there are a couple of tracks like Tujhpe Fida, Khwahishein, Saiyaan which are well integrated in the narrative. 

With so much hype created to provide a massive impetus to its opening on the BO, Heroine somewhat lacks the trademark trait of Bhandarkar cine flicks. And as far as its emerging as a massive success is concerned, then it's Kareena's fan following which may do the miracle for the movie which is otherwise expected to emerge as the cine flick slightly above the average mark.

To sum up, after watching so many women centric cine delights offered by Madhur, Heroine somewhat fails in meeting the previous benchmarks set by the director, and could only be watched to witness the oodles of oomph of Kareena.
Credit:http://www.santabanta.com

'Barfi!' ( Movie Review)

Silences seldom spoke so eloquently. It's been a while since we saw a film that set style at a subsidiary state to substance, put the characters' inner life ahead of the flamboyant manifestations of self-identity in a world governed by benevolence and charm.

"Barfi!" is a very charming film. It's remarkably devoid of vanity. The story of a deaf-and-mute man who could have grown up watching Chaplin and Raj Kapoor's cinema, and an autistic girl who has definitely not seen Shah Rukh Khan in "My Name Is Khan", is told without the props of a loud background music and other prompters to get audiences' involved in the proceedings.

This is a picaresque world of artless charm which invites you in without band baaja or baaraati. Fanfare is for the circus. "Barfi!" is pure cinema.


Goodness! I am already gushing. It's the narcotic effect that Barfi has on you. Within no time at all you are swept into the protagonist's world, the two lovely women who breeze in and out of his existence and various other characters, all etched with a compassion and vividness that one associates with the cinema of Frank Capra and Ritwik Ghatak.

"Barfi!" exudes the warm glow of a life well lived. This dazzling glow originates from the protagonist Barfi who lives his life king-size with many Chapliesque comic antics creating a chain of comicbook adventures for our happy-go-looking hero, even though he can't speak or hear.

But then speech was always supposed to be the least essential component of cinema. Ask Ingmar Bergman or Satyajit Ray. Their character spoke through lingering silences.

It's been a while since any protagonist on screen said so much to us without speaking. Rani Mukerji in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black" said it all through her muted mode of communication. But she had the formal sign language plus a voiceover for articulate support.



Significantly Anurag Basu, a master storyteller (and never mind the tormenting tepidity of his last film "Kites") does away with the crutches of a sign language and a voiceover.

Ranbir Kapoor as Barfi or Murphy whatever!...is left to his own devices. An incredibly enterprising actor, he brings a Chaplinesque aura to Barfi's character. Blending a very physical pie-in-the-face style of comic acting with an intangible poignancy, Ranbir turns his character and the film into a muted celebration of life. The tears are hidden from view. But they are there.

His grandfather, Raj Kapoor, has never been very far from Ranbir's acting skills. Raj Kapoor was highly influenced by Chaplin. Ranbir brings both the legends into the same line of vision, and yet creates a character which is unique in its buoyancy and optimism, never mind the sleeping dogs. Just let them bark in their sleep.


Priyanka Chopra as the autistic Jhilmil steals the show from Ranbir, if that's possible. Lately, she has been found to be guilty of overacting in "Agneepath" and "Anjaana Anjaani" (with Ranbir again). In "Barfi!", all her recent sins of excess are washed away.

Priyanka's inherent glamorous personality simply disappears into her character. We don't see the actress on screen at all! We see only Jhilmil who reminds us in a very pleasant way of Sridevi in "Sadma". This is one of the most flawless interpretations of a physical-psychological disability seen on celluloid.

While Ranbir and Priyanka effortlessly prove themselves the best actors of their generation, Ileana D'Cruz makes a confident engaging debut into Hindi cinema. Is she here to stay? Time will tell.


As for Basu, in his earlier films "Gangster - A Love Story" and "Life... In A Metro", he proved himself a maestro of the inner life. "Barfi!" too is shot on location within the hearts of the characters.

Not just the memorable protagonists, even the smaller players specially Roopa Ganguly and Akaash Khuruna and Haradhan Bandhopadhyay, leave a lingering impact.

"Barfi!" celebrates life without dismissing the dark passages and roadblocks that we often encounter as we travel through that craggy road to death.

To be able to celebrate life so warmly and sensitively the filmmaker has to know death closely. Basu, a concer survivor, has been there.


"Barfi!" comes as close to being a modern masterpiece as cinematically possible. To miss it would be a crime. To embrace it is to serenade the sublime. Source:http://www.santabanta.com/

Raaz 3 ( Movie Review)

Somewhere down the conscious, every human being is ravenous for success and prestige and stars of cine galaxy are no exception to the rule. But the things get worst, when these stars get incarcerate within the confines their aspiration and eminence. A well recognized status and fame somewhere down the conscious adds on to self-esteem of these celebs who constantly live with an insecurity of losing it at the toss of a coin.
Sometimes this addiction to stardom compel these celebs, to have an unholy alliance with even the impassable domain of exorcism. And that is the ground where Vikram Bhatt's recently released cine flick Raaz-3 has its roots.

This much talked about cine flick starring Bipasha Basu, Emraan Haashmi and Esha Gupta opened with an occupancy of around 75% at the multiplexes.


Synopsis
Raaz-3 primarily revolves around, the verminous sport of exorcism and necromancy which comes into play, when the domination of an established actress is smashed into bits, by the arrival of a budding actress. And from their takes over the vengeance of an established superstar, who takes a resort in the dark lanes of black magic.


Story
Raaz- 3 is the narrative, of an established actress Shanaya Shekhar ( Bipasha Basu) for whom stardom and success are two essential vitalizing ingredients of her life. But the rising domination of Shanaya fragment into bits after the arrival of a younger actress Sanjana (Esha) who repeatedly trounce Sanjana in the competitive league of showbiz, which does not go down well with Shanaya.

In order to regain her lost glory, Shanaya decides to detach from the path of religion and opts for an unholy alliance with the dark lanes of necromancy and uses her director boyfriend Aditya Arora ( Emraan Hashmi) as pawn to meet her objective.

From their begins the anguish of Sanjana, who falls prey to abominable intentions of Shanaya. But the entire plan of Shanaya flips, when Aditya fall in love with Sanjana. But inspite of that Shanaya prefer to keep the vengeance tab on go and constantly keeps on making the the lives of the duo a living hell.


Script
Ever-since the era of Ramsay brothers, there is a thumb rule for the script of horror cine flicks which says that, it's the bloodcurdling appeal of the onscreen wraith and the spontaneity of those horror sequences which are the prominent ingredients to make horror flick a success.

But as far as scripts of Raaz- 3 is concerned, then besides having those strategically placed joggles, it has got ample amount of "Human-Element" in it which very well showcases the vengeance and agony of the protagonists with a sound dose of audaciousness. 

Though the script of Raaz-3 doesn't have any thing extra ordinary to offer, but inspite of that it somewhat succeeds in keeping the gaze of fans glued to the screen. So for penning down quite a common script but with utmost blending dexterity, Shagufta Rafiq deserves to be patted.


Dialogues
Quite in accordance with the soul of the script, dialogues too don't have any extra ordinary or over the top appeal, but inspite of that they well supplement the theme and nowhere make themselves appear as something, unnecessarily obtruded.

Screenplay
After delivering a box office disaster, Dangerous Ishq, finally Vikram Bhatt is back to re-write the success saga with Raaz-3. Since the first frame of the movie, Vikram pursues this cine cantata of vengeance and anguish with utmost dexterity. 

The flow of the narration takes off so beautifully that you nowhere feels like parting your gaze from the screen. Unlike those core horror flicks, Raaz-3, do not overburden you with those abrupt shocking blows of fear, rather it relies on a balanced blend of human element and horror.

Be it those spine-chilling horror sequences or some passionate scene, Vikram never allowed anything to go beyond the desired proportions and has adroitly succeeded in keeping every ingredient glued to the theme of the story. 

First half of the movie well succeeds in sowing the premise which showcases the vengeance of an actress whose rising stardom nose dives abruptly leading to the inculcation of jealousy and her stepping in the dark aisles of black magic. 


Ever-since the onset of premise, narration of Raaz-3 flows at a constant pace which further adds on to the curiosity of the cine buffs. And as far as emergence of those horror sequences is concerned, then Vikram has very well managed the marvelous spontaneity in their emergence and has kept that blow on face element at bay.

After witnessing the soothing flow of story in the first half, post interval portion of, Raaz-3, may appear as leaping towards climax for a while, but by the time climax reaches, the pace of the story regains its constant momentum to keep fan's attention glued to the celluloid.

As far as 3D factor is concerned, then it looks like post Dangerous Ishq Vikram has realised that `a vowed 3D should be a 3D`, hence in Raaz-3 he has made it sure that 3D embellishment in Raaz-3, should thoroughly succeed in impressing the movie enthusiasts.


Acting
As far as the performance of the protagonists of Raaz-3 are concerned, then it's Bipasha Basu who completely steals the show. Throughout the onscreen proceeding, Bipasha keeps on tapping the perfection with utmost adroitness. 

Be it sizzling an audacious scenes, or a psychopathic persona of an actress whose career is down sliding, Bipasha successfully managed to get into the skin of her character. In fact it won't be wrong to say that, Raaz-3 is surely going to revitalize the otherwise crumbling career of Bipasha.

In Raaz-3 Emraan is once again blessed with an opportunity, to get cozy with two sizzling beauties of showbiz. Thanks to the director. Keeping jokes apart, Emraan has once again succeeded in meeting the expectation of his fans and very well fit in the shoes of his character Aditya Arora with utmost excellence.


On the contrary to the performances of these two adroit protagonists, Esha's performance looks somewhat half-hearted in first half where she looks more of an actor sans expression, but as the story proceeds, she copes up well with the demand of her character. 

Though the supporting cast does not have much to do, as the major portion of the story revolves around Bipasha, Emraan and Esha, but inspite of that Manish Chaudhuri thoroughly succeeds in leaving his impact as wicked soul.

Music
Contrary to Bhatt legacy, Raaz-3 nowhere offers a marvelous dose of music, which is usually believed to be an inseparable part of Bhatt movies. Tracks like 'Rafta rafta', 'Deewana kar raha hai', 'Zindagi se' are soothing, melodious, but, not as impressive as the tracks of 2002 cine flick Raaz were. Even the peppy number Kya Raaz is not peppy enough to secure a slot among chart busters tracks.


BO Potential
With a massive brand value to provide an impetus to its BO earning, Raaz-3 is expected to emerge as one of the sought after movie of the year, which may succeed in regaining the lost glory for Vikram and Bipasha. And besides that, unlike the earning pace of Ek Tha Tiger and Rowdy Rathore, Raaz-3 is expected to make a decent amount on BO but at a constant pace of earning.


Verdict
To sum up, knitted around a core of, aspirations, vengeance and necromancy, RAAZ 3 is an entertaining cine cantata with a sizzling blend of sensuality, horror and human element in 3D. Infact it won't be wrong to say Raaz-3 is worth a watch to have glimpse of redefined horror genre of Bollywood. Credit:http://www.santabanta.com

Yaar Pardesi (Movie Review)

It's a film which represents today's youth who are flamboyant yet sensitive to its culture and surroundings. 

Yaar Pardesi is a first Punjabi Movie to be shot with Sync Sound (sync sound means is that the voices and sounds are recorded at the time of shooting instead of being dubbed at a later date.) by Canada Trained Sound Designer Avneet Grewal. 

The story of Yaar Pardesi revolves around two friends, who land in India. One is an NRI Punjabi girl, Sehaj (Vandana Singh) and the other is a Canadian, Anna (Claudia Ciesla). The purpose of Anna's visit is to find her sister's husband who cheats her and vanishes from Canada, with all her sister's valuables and Sehaj helps her friend as she has her roots in India. 

At the airport, there's a small misunderstanding where Sehaj mistakes Kuku (Gurpreet Ghuggi) as a cab driver. Kuku goes with the flow as he is charmed by these beauties. On the journey, they become friends. Later on, situations makes these girls vanish from Sehaj's to Kuku's. 

Kuku's friends RJ Dhanveer () and Navdeep Kaler () learn about these two beautiful guests of Kuku. These two rural folks aspire to move to Canada and they see Visas in these two lovely lasses. As a result, they all gang up to help the girls accomplish their mission. 

This results in many comic sequences and everyone lives happily ever after except from Navdeep as Dhanveer is hooked up with Sehaj and Kuku with Anna. 


German Model and Bigg Boss fame Claudia Ciesla looks hot and sizzling on screen. Her chemistry with Gurpreet Ghuggi in the movie is quite amazing. This is RJ Dhanveer's debut movie but he has been very impressive work in his maiden project. 

Vandana Singh has acted pretty well and she'll surely collect accolades from the audience. Navdeep Kaler has supported Dhanveer well. BN Sharma and Binnu Dhillon are at their hilariuos best. They are the the saving grace of the otherwise dull and drab movie.

After portraying his excellence in direction, with "Mannat" and landmark Punjabi serials "Eho Hamara Jeevna" & "Akhiyan Ton Door Jayeen Na", Gurbir Singh Grewal once again stepped into the shoes of writer, though his last scripted cine tale "Mannat " was a hit. 

The story is an average fair and has some hiccups. It may impress only a limited audience but many will reject it too.

Just like any other movie of Punjwood, Yaar Pardesi too has got a decent blend of musical carols to charm the masses. Besides peppy numbers "Akhan Akhan Wich" and "Apaan wi Canada" Wale, soulful Tu Te Mein offers a good musical delight.

On the whole, this is an avoidable movie until and unless you're a die hard Punjwood buff. Source:http://www.santabanta.com

'I M 24' ( Movie Review)

This team of intelligent cinema-savvy actors and technicians has been making urbane comedies for many years now. Some have worked at the box office. Most have not. But there's no denying the suave smooth-sailing charm of the narration, as we glide through one more metro-centric saga of warmth during times of loneliness.

Rightaway, director Saurabh Shukla, who also plays with relish, an obscenely over-the-top film producer, introduces us to the film's protagonist, a struggling bald writer Shubendu (Rajat Kapoor) and his struggling-actor flatmate Gagan (Ranvir Shorey).

A portrait in contrasts, physically, intellectually and morally, Shubendu and Gagan are played with such innate conviction and charm by the two actors that we barely notice how much these characters owe to the Hollywood tradition of contrasting men sharing roof and lives in a hostile city where desolation is not an option, it's a given. Deal with it, or perish.

The girls, the very charming Neha Dhupia and the surprisingly in-character Manjari Phadnis (her last remarkable performance was in 'Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na' as Rajat Kapoor's daughter frozen in a state of emotional denial), slip into the film with stealthy stilettos, creating for themselves a space in the boys' story without displacing the drama of desolation that runs through the plot.

While Ranvir Shorey happily takes the backseat, the core of the plot, a brilliant Mumbai fable with characters who resemble real persons without losing their cinematic edginess, is devoted to developing the Rajat-Manjari relationship which starts on the internet and moves uneasily into a personal one-to-one, which threatens to turn messy.

Since "I M 24" is set in the Mumbai film industry (thankfully, no one calls it Bollywood in Saurabh's film), there are some saucy references to Hindi cinema and filmmakers. In an exchange with Manjari, Rajat Kapoor playing the writer to the hilt, boasts that he wrote "Devdas" for Sanjay Leela Bhansali who, improvises Kapoor, wanted a departure from Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, and Rajat gave it to him.

Even saucier is the sequence where Ranvir berates Rajat for mentioning the film "Mujhse Dosti Karoge" among the films that he feigns to have written to impress Manjari.

The joke is, "I M 24" is at core an internet romance, just like Kunal Kohli's "Mujhse Dosti Karoge". If you look closely, you'll come across several such delectable inhouse jokes, including a beefcake actor (Karan Singh Grover), who throws a fit when the struggling actress Neha Dhupia asks about his wife and children.

Shukla's screenplay balances out these unsuccessful elements at the fringes of Bollywood. The script even squeezes in a rather hilarious encounter between a mafioso's timid money-collector (Vijay Raaz, as straightfaced and glum in his humour as ever), who is petrified of the producer's aggressive sister (Lilette Dubey) and seeks advice and solace from the producer's secretary (Delnaaz Paul).

The vast network of Shukla's characters sit with remarkable lightness over the script. These are solidly talented actors playing fringe characters whom they closely identify with. The actors imbue a bedrock believability to this bitter-sweet Bollywood rom-com.

"I M 24" has some sparkling moments of reflected glory, as a bald and bland writer Rajat Kapoor takes lessons in spunky living and convincing bullshitting from his flamboyant flatmate. What 'lies' underneath is a likeable well-crafted rom-com with many moments when the cast seems to be having a ball.

Watch Ranvir groove to R.D.Burman's "Do labzon ki hai yeh dil ki kahani", and you'll know what I mean. Soure: http://www.santabanta.com

Joker (Movie Review)

Be it Bollywood or Hollywood, curiosity associated with the incognito world of aliens and UFO has always been a source of fascination for the merchants of showbiz, who always try to offer something innovative and thrilling to cine buffs, in order to keep the cash register ringing.

The newest entrant who is there to prove its mettle in this fantasy adventure genre is Shirish Kunder's self proclaimed sci-fi saga Joker. Starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha, Joker opened at multiplexes with an occupancy of 25 %. 

Synopsis 
Joker, is a tale about a space scientist who returns to his native village, Paglapur, an isolated village undergoing a plight of neglect, for not having any of its mention on the map of India and protagonist's quaint idea to get the recognition for his village.


Story
Agastya (Akshay Kumar) is a space scientist, working on the the development of a communication system, to communicate with aliens. But Agastya, losses the faith of of his seniors and is allotted with a deadline of one month to conclude his project with some substantial results.

In the mean time, Agastya is informed by his friend Diva (Sonakshi Sinha), regarding his father's illness, on hearing this Agastya reaches his native village Paglaapur, whose colorful inhabitants include a man who speaks in gibberish, another who thinks he is a lamp post and everyone else who think that the World War II is still going on?

Soon after reaching there, Agastya finds that he was called on a false pretext of illness by his father. 

On getting apprised about truth, Agastya decides to move back to US, but after hearing the plight of the inhabitants of Paglapur, due to the brushing aside of the village by the the government because of its being absent from the demarcated map of India, he makes his mind to come out with some solution for the problem.

As the story proceeds, Agastya comes up with a quaint idea pertaining to the crop circle and arrival of aliens in his village, in order to fetch a recognition for his otherwise isolated village undergoing a plight of neglect ever since the independence. 

With frames moving ahead, Agastya along with other villagers creates crop circle in Paglapur and spreads rumor about arrival of aliens in the village. And from their, amid tremendous media hype, takes over some hilarious sequences knitted around UFO and fictitious man made aliens. 


Script
Joker very well proves the fact, that it's not necessary for an innovative idea to turn into an interesting cine flick. The story of Joker falls flat on ground, as soon as its takes off.

For some, this may be an innovative idea to blend a fantasy adventure with rustic background, but actually it turned out to be a disaster for Shirish. In fact it won't be wrong to say that the script of "Joker" seemed to be knitted just for heck of doing it. 

As far as humour quotient and the sci-fi flavour are concerned, then even these two USPs of the movie seemed to be buried beneath the terrains of Paglapur. In fact Joker seems to be a satire on all UFO and alien movies which have been made so far


Screenplay and Direction
In the absence of a rational and tenable script, the screenplay also seems to be too burdening for the heads of the movie buffs. With a run time, less than of 2 hours "Joker", no where thrills you or leaves you mesmerised with its onscreen offerings. 

With narration starting at snail's pace, the movie completely fails in keeping the gazes of the masses glued to the celluloid. As soon as the story starts, comes in a flurry of protagonists with their weird belief patterns, but as the story proceeds, even the short lived humor which tickles you in the prior sequences, starts loosing its appeal. 

With narration getting out of proportion and extremely slow in the second half, it becomes cumbersome to sit through the film after a point. In nut shell the pace of the narration of Joker, is even slower than that of a ninety year old granny on an athletic track. 


Dialogue
Even in dialogues department, Joker has nothing to offer. Besides some bland humor punches, Joker also tries to induce some humor with some funny pick up lines of, Asrani but even that does not merry the masses. 

Acting / Performance
Contrary to his usual style of quick witted and spontaneous humor, in Joker Akshay looks monotonous and repetitive and thoroughly fails in delivering the performance, which is usually expected out of him by the fans. 

Sonakshi seems to be assisting Akshay through out the course of the movie, with no scope to exhibit her acting adroitness. 

As far as the performance of the Shreyas is concerned, then he looked more of a Tusshar Kapoor scion from "Golmaal" trilogy. In first few sequences his acts of speaking gibberish somewhat induces laughter, but later on they turn in to a torment for the audience. 

On the other hand the performance of the supporting cast comprising of Minissha Lamba, Asrani, Vindu Dara Singh, Sanjay Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Pitobash, Darshan Jariwala, Anjan Srivastava, and Avtar Gill further adds on to the plight of the audience.

Music / Lyrics 
Just like many other components, songs of Joker also seemed to be something unnecessarily obtruded, just for heck of it. Music of Joker is neither soothing nor peppy. The only song that may charm you is 'Kafirana', picturised on Chitrangda Singh, where as the remaining songs are incorporated to act as fillers.


BO Potential 
About BO potential of Joker, the only thing which can be expected is that, it has got all the spices in perfect proportion to emerge as one of the biggest BO disaster of 2012. 

Verdict
To sum up, Joker is 105 minutes paid torture, which is meant to end your inclination towards fantasy adventure cine flicks.  Credit:www.santabanta.com

Carry on Jatta (Movie Review)

Carry on Jatta is about a bunch of misfits whose misconception about each other’s backgrounds end up in a series of chaotic, yet comic outcomes. It is an out an out comedy of marital mixups.

Advocate Raminder Bajwa (Jaswinder Bhalla) stays with his two sons Goldie (Binnu Dhillon) and Sunny (Gippy Grewal). The family is shown owning a huge house and constantly looking for a tenant for their 1st floor. Advocate Bajwa is a widower and is constantly getting into verbal spats with his elder son, Goldie. These spats turn out to be be quite comical.

While Goldie is married to Preeti (Khushboo Grewal) and assists his dad in his practice, Sunny runs a brick kiln business. Rocky (Gurpreet Ghuggi) is Sunny’s good friend and good for nothing son of Police Inspector Sikander Tiwana (B.N.Sharma). Rocky’s only aim in life is to get married to a rich girl, Nikki (Sunita Dheer), daughter of Satwinder Dosanjh (Kanwaljit Singh).

Dosanjh's son (Rana Ranbir) is always seen pestering his father to send him to Canada. And Sunny is smitten by Mahie (Mahie Gill) who he meets at his friend's sister's wedding. Sunny is constantly chasing Mahie and overhears the converstaion of Mahie with her friends where she mentions about marrying someone who doesn't have a family.

To win over Mahie, Sunny indulges in a conversation with Rocky to prove to Mahie that he is an orphan. Even though he wins over Mahie and it results in a love story which takes an interesting turn when he is forced to marry her in court on the insistence of Mahie and her brother.

When Sunny leaves for work, Mahie goes out to look for a rented accommodation and ends up selecting Bajwa's house. When she informs Sunny about her selection, Sunny is flummoxed and he tries to make her walk out of the deal.

When he fails to convince Mahie, he presents his friend Rocky as the husband of Mahie to his family. They connive to use every tactic so that his family may not agree to housing the couple. This results in Bajwa giving them one month notice. So Sunny is forced to live in his own house as a tenant.

Even Rocky has to move in the house as Mahie's husband. Sunny and Rocky trade places very convincingly which result in very hilarious situations. To add insult to injury, Rocky convinces Sunny to show his father, Advocate Bajwa as Rocky's father, without their knowledge, as his Inspector father refuses to meet Nikki's parents as Rocky is good for nothing.

However, the twists and turns results in Rocky convincing Nikki to marry her in court. To make things more complicated, he tells Bajwa that his son has married Nikki. The family of Bajwa accepts Nikki as their daughter-in-law. There is total bedlam as the guys keep hiding their wives and family from each other till the climax.

This results in utter confusion and amazing comic situataions. The drama ends after a huge chase popularised in the vintage "Carry On" movies. The film ends on a high note after a 22 minutes long climax.

The high point of the movie is its crisp hilarious dialogues by Narinder Kathuria who quit Comedy Circus to pen very entertaining dialogues.

Some songs of the movie songs could have been avoided which were carried since Gippy Grewal is more popular for his singing than acting. This resulted in the first half beinga little drab but the second half more than makes for it.

Though the lead pair was good, the movie was carried on their shoulders by Jaswinder Bhalla, B.N. Sharma and Binu Dhillon. Binu's timing and dialogue delivery was very good and Bhalla is a seasoned actor and comedian. Rana Ranbir was a misfit and Ghuggi's performance was not brilliant especially in the drunkards scene. The lead pair looked good though Mahie was under utilised and her dancing left much to be desired.

All respect for the director, Smeep Kang of "Chak De Phatte" fame for presenting Punjabi humour without any vulgarity. This movie must be watched as it is a family entertainer and out and out comedy. The producer in Gippy Grewal's brother, Sippy and their co-producers will laugh all the away to the bank. Credit:santabanta.com

Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi (Movie Review)

In the era, where Bollywood is already exhibiting a sea change in the cinematographic trends. "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is another add on to the Bollywood's bunch of offbeat entertainers, showcasing the fact that love has no boundaries.

This debut flick of choreographer turned actress, Farah Khan accompanied by seasoned actor Boman Irani opened at multiplexes with an occupancy of 25 %, comprising of the masses from nearly all the age groups. 

Synopsis:
"Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is a cute love tale of middle aged bachelor and a spinster, destined to be bitten by the love-bug and their tryst with their courtship period accompanied by some sweet and sour moments.

"Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" somewhere resembles Late Hrishikesh Mukherjee's style of cinematography, where there use to be simple man with a golden heart who always manage to deal with his day to day problems without much ado or florid drama.


Story: 
Farhad (Boman Irani) is salesman working at a women undergarment shop with a dream of setting up his own business in the similar domain. Besides it he's a middle aged Parsi bachelor living with his overbearing mother Nargis ( Honey Irani) and grandma ( Shammi), who are desperate to get him married. But all their efforts of getting Farhad married goes to pot, because of Farhads profession. 

As the story proceeds amid the daily humdrum, Farhad has a rendezvous with a woman of his dreams Shirin Fugawala (Farah Khan), who drops by his store for shopping and there strikes the cupid.

Everything seemed to be heading towards the fair coast till the time Farhad introduces Shirin to his family, where the destiny had something else within its womb for the duo, for whom Farhad's mother turn into a rapscallion, on finding that Shirin is the same Parsi Trust Secretary, who got their illegal water tank demolished which use to be the last souvenir of Farhad's late father. As the story proceeds numerous cute and hilarious incidents emerge to take the story to its conclusion. 


Script:
After portraying his excellence in direction, with "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam", "Devdas" and "Black". This time Bhansali once again stepped in to the shoes of writer, though his last scripted cine tale "Guzarish" could not fare well on the BO, but this time Sanjay has somehow managed to draft a decent love tale of two middle aged protagonists.

But one thing which can't be negated about the script is, that besides being a unique theme it could have been better with a slightly high dose of romance and sharp humor which is somewhere important to pull masses to the cine arenas.

As far as narration is concerned then a couple of sequences portrayed on the screen seemed to be forced ones. In nut shell, "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" could have done better with a with a slightly higher dose of comedy or well-written romantic sequences. 

Screenplay and Direction:
Another debutant who deserved to be patted for her commendable work is debuting director Bela Sehgal, who managed to handle this unique script knitted around the romance of two 45+ protagonists with a praiseworthy dexterity.

Though a few sequences in the movie seemed to be melodramatic but over all pace of the screenplay remains constant to offer a decent dose of entertainment. First half of the movie takes of at a soothing pace with a few unnecessarily knitted sequences but as the story proceeds it maintains a constant pace with no larger than life depictions or unnecessary melodrama.

On the other hand the humor quotient of the movie nowhere seems to be getting sarcastic, at the same time comedy punches never get too sharp to split you into laughter, but they are some what decent enough to bring a smile on the faces of the masses. 

And the best part pertaining to "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is, that none of the components of the screenplay seems to be loitering out of proportions.


Dialogues:
Well as far as dialogues are concerned, then they somewhat lacked consistency because of the high savour-less coefficient. Though the Parsi dialect is very well carried by entire cast, but the bland dialogues and vacuous humor punches, somewhat impacted the entertainment quotient in adverse manner. 

Acting / Performances:
Well, as far as the performance is concerned, then Boman seemed to be at his best. In "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi", Boman is a delight, who once again proved his mettle by performing the character of a middle aged bachelor with a flawless dexterity. Infact it won't be wrong to say that Boman's performance was a sort of standout performance, which set him apart from rest of the cast of the movie. 

As far as Farah's performance is concerned then at a few places she seemed to be fumbling with the demand of the character, but over all she looked cute and succeeded in breaking away that first-timer shell which is usually seen clad around an established yet debuting celeb. 

Honey very well carried her Parsi Mom and very well supplemented the lovable grandma avatar of Shammi.


Music / Lyrics:
Quite in accordance with the theme and the potential of the movie, music of "SFKTP" is peppy and lovable, with songs like "Ramba Mein Samba" in the voice of legendary Usha Uthap, "KukduKu, Khatti Meethi" and soulful number "Kaafir Andhere" in the voice of KK. On the other hand, background score too gels up well with the onscreen substance. 

BO Potential:
Inspite of its being a laudable watch, it will be wrong to keep the expectation of any kind of BO miracles from "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi", because of its offbeat nature and the absence of adorable A-graders in it. The movie is expected to receive an average reception on BO, which in itself is an achievement for such tales based on the unique ideas. 


Verdict:
On the whole, "Shirin Farhaad Ki toh Nikal Padi" is a cute Rom-Com of veterans, which is worth a watch because it offers a decent amount of entertainment with a simple and unfussy premise. Credit:.santabanta.com

Jism 2 (Movie Review)

With tons of hypes and hullabaloo surrounding the season's most-awaited movie Jism 2, cine goers long wait to catch the hot Sunny Leone in action finally gets over. After soaring the apprehensions, curiosity and speculation arena, finally the most anticipated sex-thriller saga of the year Jism-2 made it to the celluloid.

Eversince the promulgation about Jism-2 and its leading lady was made, the gossip mills pertaining to the movie never ran out of fuel.

So finally the erotic saga appeared on the silver screen, fetching an opening day occupancy of over 92% at the multiplexes, which primarily comprised of people who wanted to have the first glimpse of Sunny's maiden performance in decorous stream of cinema.

Synopsis
Jism-2 is an erotic tale comprising of lust, sex and betrayal, blended with a bleak dose of action and love where a porn star (or so called porn star), is hired by an intelligence officer to set a honey-trap in order to purloin the sensitive information from a dreaded assassin.


Story:
The story of the Jism-2 begins with the confession of Izna(Sunny Leone), who is being hired by an Intelligence officer Ayaan ( Arunoday Singh) whom Izna meets in a club.

In the hotel room Ayaan tells Izna, that he is an Intelligence services officer and want to have a deal with her in order to purloin some highly sensitive documents from the possession of a dreaded assassin Kabir Wilson ( Randeep Hooda).

As the story proceeds, Ayaan takes Izna to Srilanka where the duo meets Ayaan's boss Mr Guru( Arif Zakaria), who briefs Izna about the entire mission.

With an objective of intruding into the abode of of Kabir, Ayaan and Izna rents an accommodation next to Kabir's home. And from her begins a journey of sex, lust and betrayal, where Sunny tries to lure Kabir in order to accomplish her objective of getting those secret documents.

Script
It won't be wrong to say that, Jism-2 is a tale with a flimsy spine, which looks like a saga written to secure a berth for Sunny in Bollywood. As far as story line and its flow is concerned then script provides and abrupt start to the movie where the narration of the Sunny with in no time is followed by the action mode.

Script of the Jism-2 seems to be hasty because the succession of the sequences is jotted in such a manner that it somewhat becomes simply indigestible for the cine goers. With Izna meeting Ayaan and with in no time accepting his offer of becoming his pawn to purloin the sensitive information from Kabir is one of the conspicuous example of this.

Through out the course of story, the script seemed to be pouncing towards obtruded intimate sequences. As the story proceeds, the primary plot seems to be getting ostracized. Though Jism-2 is a typical combo of "love, lust and dhokha", but still it completely fails in developing a concrete plot to keep the fans cine sense glued to the big screen.

Dialogues:
As far as the dialogues are concerned, then Jism-2 has unconventional romantic dialogues, dabbled in the treacle of philosophy, which again lead to the emergence of monotony in already crumbling script.

In dialogues department writer Shagufta Rafique tried to lends a certain zing to the brew, but could not succeed in doing anything messianic for Jism-2.

Screenplay / Direction
As a director Pooja has just one commercial success in her kitty and that is "Paap", therefore in order to make Jism -2 a major success Pooja ran from pillar to post and didn't leave any stone unturned to meet the objective. But once again this Bhatt angle failed in delivering an entertaining delight to the fans.

In the first half pace of the screenplay seems to be rushing to have a rendezvous with the erotic sequences which are somewhat unnecessarily incorporated in the story to titillate the libidinal chords of the masses. As the story proceeds screenplay tries to touch the issues of terrorism also but could not succeed in vitalising it on the screen.

With a running pace of where an intelligence officer meets a damsel, gets cozy with her and with in no time reveals his identity and hires her for a mission. It looked like as if in the screenplay's sole emphasis is on exposing those voluptuous curves of Sunny. In the second half with excess of drama poking in the flow of the screenplay further deteriorates.

As far as direction of Pooja is concerned, then Jism-2 no where looked like a cine flick from a seasoned director, who knows how to knit an erotic-thriller to offer an entertaining delight to the cine buffs.

Inspite of having the patronage and legacy of legendary director Mahesh Bhatt, Pooja completely failed in extracting a praiseworthy expressiveness from her cine pawns, who were constantly seen struggling to get in the skin of their characters.

As far as technical aspects of Jism-2 are concerned, then they looked quite focused on exhibiting those stupendous curves of Sunny and exotic shooting locations. Though the camera work of the movie was somewhat good, but at times its extreme propinquity to Sunny over exposed the aging effect of this gorgeous damsel.

Acting / Performances
Well as far as performances of the protagonists are concerned, then except Randeep the entire star cast seems to be struggling to showcase a praiseworthy performance.

Eversince the promulgation of Sunny, as the leading lady of Jism-2 there was a flurry of hypes and speculations about her potential to perform in a decorous stream of cinema.

In Jism-2 this Indo Canadian porn star completely failed in leaving any impact on the fans by her performance.In the movie Sunny appeared lacking in the elementary acting skills and even failed in assimilating the expressiveness to her character. Throughout the movie she looked more of a mannequin who is being casted to showcase a diverse range of skimpy attires.

In Jism-2, it was only Randeep Hooda who managed to emerge as better performer while playing the character of an assassin. Randeep well carried the character of a lonely assassin and succeeded in leaving some impact on the cine buffs. In nut shall Randeep was better than rest, but not at his best.

If it's about Arunoday, then after seeing his next to perfect performance in "Yeh Saali Zindagi", fans may get disappointed by his performance in Jism-2, where inspite of his best efforts he could not succeed in stepping in the shoes of an intelligence officer.

Well Arif Zakaria looked completely captivated with in the confines of small screen acting style, and looked like a new comer who is oblivious about the real life persona associated with his onscreen character.

Music / Lyrics :
Music and lyrics, are the two such departments of Jism-2 which deserves to be accoladed with tons of praises for being the heart touching numbers. Arko Pravo Mukherjee's music is simply mesmerising where all the the tracks seemed to be knitted to tap the emotional chords of the cine-goers. Tracks "Abhi-Abhi", "Maula" and "Darta Hoon Adhoora" are soulful carols. Even the title track "Ye Jism" sung by Ali Azmat is mesmerising.

BO Potential:
Contrary to its pre-release hypes and hullabaloo, Jism-2 is expected to emerge as an average entertainer which may pull the masses, just because of the curiosity associated with it. Jism-2, the story knitted in a flimsy thread may succeed in fetching the gazes of young voyeuristic heads but may fall short of even their expectations.

Verdict:
To sum up, inspite of having a thick robe of apprehensions and curiosity around it, Jism-2 is an over hyped erotic thriller which even fails in quenching the libidinal pangs of the cine goers, who were expecting a thorough erotic delight from the Bhatts. The only USP that may offer some "Paisa Vasool" solace to cine buffs is a decent dose of erotica.

Credit: Mid-Day.com