Bollywood Movie Review

Movie Review – Krantiveer The Revolution

tarring: Introducing Jahan Bloch, Samir Aftab, Adiya Singh Rajput, Harsh Rajput, Farida Jalal, Ranjeet, Govind Namdeo, Mukesh Tiwari and Aman Verma
Director: Mehul Kumar
June 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Designed as a sequel to the super successful Krantiveer (1994) which got Nana Patekar the Best Actor, National Award, Krantiveer – The Revolution (KTC) is a weak attempt at recreating the patriotic fervor which the original had.
Roshni (Jahan Bloch) is the young daughter of the man responsible for the last revolution, Pratap Narayan Tilak and his wife (Nana Patekar and Dimple Kapadia). She just like her dad wants to rid the nation of corruption, and the evils present in the society. She gets herself a platform by joining a TV channel as an investigative journalist. She is hell bent on exposing all the scams in the country including those involving high profile businessmen and top ministers. Along with her friends Vishal (Samir Aftab), Goldie (Aditya Singh Rajput) and Uday (Harsh Rajput) she takes this crusade forward and becomes successful eventually despite many odds.
The sole reason why Krantiveer was a success was because of KK Singh’s dialogues, Nana Patekar’s character and Mehul Kumar’s direction. Here Singh is not involved with the project, Nana is not acting in the film and the veteran director though having made a sincere attempt, falls short. There is no direct relation of the plot to any of the 26/11 terror attack scenes which come towards the climax. Though Mehul Kumar has tried to show authenticity by using footage of the 26/11 terrorists attacks, he fails to impress the audiences.
His debutante daughter Jahan has been made to rant lengthy dialogues from the word go. While she does it with sincerity, it doesn’t really work. Too much responsibility has been given on her shoulders leaving less scope for the rest. New comers Samir Aftab, Adiya Singh Rajput, Harsh Rajput put in their honest efforts too. Senior actors like Ranjeet, Farida Jalal hardly get any scope to perform. Aman Verma playing the corporate head honcho, Mukesh Tiwari and Govind Namdeo playing sleazy ministers act well.
Music by Sachin-Jigar is passable and the songs ‘Khuda mere khuda’ and ‘Chhote tera birthday aaya’ work on screen. But the songs ‘Firangi paani’ and ‘Lau jalee’ were not needed. Editing and cinematography don’t match up to standards.
Though it may not be worth an effort to go to the cinema hall, the film definitely appears like a genuine attempt to awaken the young Indians to come forward and erase corruption from our politics.

Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta – Review

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June 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Aditya Mehta (Prashant Narayanan) is an artist who is more shown painting his wife’s toenails than the colours of the canvas. His wife Sakhi Mehta (Lucy Hassan) is shown to be having an extramarital affair with Karan Singh (Naved Aslam). Now, Karan’s wife Neera Singh (Aruna Shields) discovers that her husband is cheating on her and she ends up seeking solace in Aditya’s company. They get drawn together by shame and anger as they find more comfort in each other’s friendship. But despite bonding well, they try not to have a relationship with each other.
One fails to understand that though the adultery is shown openly obvious since the start, why do Aditya and Neera never try to confront their respective partners over it? Trying to make the film more provocative widespread nudity has been incorporated on the pretext that overcome his block by painting nude female form ala Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Now funnily, Neera is shown to be shying away from posing nude for the painting that Aditya wants to do, despite the fact that she has been shown moving around naked in Aditya’s warehouse for big part of the film. What irritates more are the continually censored blurs that attempt to cover up her nude body. The climax is supposedly symbolic but it is too rushed that you end up feeling there some more of the film left! There is nothing wrong in making a complete art house project but at least let the film connect on some level or derive some emotion out of the viewer apart from frustration!
Debutante director Pravesh Bhardwaj takes his own sweet time to establish the growing proximity between Aditya and Neera but leaves it hurriedly towards the climax. The film’s shot in London but you don’t see much of it apart from some unflattering lanes of London. A wonderful ghazal based track by Shujaat Hussain Khan goes waste in a film like this.
Prashant Narayanan is just about okay but he has done better work before. Aruna Shields is made to expose her body more than her acting skills. Lucky Hassan is passable. Naved Aslam is fair.
The film is a plain bore with nothing good to talk about. Please avoid!

Raavan – Movie Review

Since the time of the announcement of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, curiosity about how India’s most accomplished filmmaker manages to do a modern day adaptation of the mythological epic, Ramayan, has known no bounds. Thankfully, Mani succeeds in his own inimitable way. His team’s painstaking hard work shows in every frame of the film and his actors help him raise the film’s bar.
The film opens with policemen killed at various places around Lal Maati, a small town in Northern India. This is followed by abduction of the local police chief Dev’s (Vikram) wife Raagini (Aishwarya Rai). The dreaded low cast tribal lord Beera (Abhishek) is behind the kidnapping. Dev (Vikram) immediately gets hot on the trail of Beera with trusted lieutenant Hemant (Nikhil Dwivedi) and seeks the help of the jovial forest guard Sanjeevani (Govinda). Beera knows the dense jungle like the back of his hand and is helped by the tribals, managing to stay just one step ahead of Dev and his team. But as the cat and mouse chase proceeds between Beera and Dev, the initial hate of Raagini for Beera subsides. As Dev inches closer, the near maniacal Beera shows he has a heart too and Raagini almost loses hers to him. What follows after Beera and Dev come face to face forms the rest of the film.
Taking on a mega epic like Ramayan and turning it on its head giving his own personal interpretation, Mani Ratnam dares to depart from the religious text and succeeds in showcasing how Ram can be a Raavan and how a Raavan can also be a Ram. Aided by the best technical crew of Indian cinema, Mani has made his multilayered film, a technical marvel to watch with awe. The first half moves on rapidly mostly focusing on Dev’s chase of Beera, but however it gets boring beyond a point since the story hardly moves ahead. Mani also fails to establish the exact setting of the outlaws. Are they Naxals or a modern day Robin hood gang? But it is the beginning of the second half where Mani begins to pack his solid punches and achieves the peak with an unusual climax. Beera’s background (the reason for Raagini’s abduction), Dev’s impatience to grab Beera, Raagini’s gradual change of perception about Beera and eventually the final face off between Dev and Beera have all been terrifically captured.
Abhishek is nothing short of brilliant, portraying Beera. If you thought Abhishek delivered his best under Mani in Yuva and Guru, watch Raavan for his evolvement into an actor of true caliber. Aishwarya Rai delivers a top notch act. Makeup less and forever battered and bruised, Aishwarya’s eyes convey a lot more than the shrieking her character has to resort to most of the time. Vikram unfortunately is saddled with a one dimensional character for most part of the film until the climactic punch. He looks fearless and arouses enough curiosity as an actor to watch him play Beera in the Tamil version of the film. Govinda as Sanjeevani brings on the much required comic relief in the tense proceedings and succeeds. Ravi Kissen grabs the opportunity to impress with both his hands and does well. Priyamani playing Beera’s sister, in her brief role manages to bring out the pathos of her unfortunate character.
Mani takes you to virgin locations within India never exposed before on screen. Be it the thick dense forests in Kerala or the same state’s dangerous Athirappally Waterfalls or the exotic Orcha in Madhya Pradesh and Malshej Ghat valley in Maharashtra, Santosh Sivan and Manikandan’s camera captures it all with super finesse. The action finale on the hanging bridge, a never seen before feat in Indian cinema makes your heart skip a beat.
Oscar winner A.R. Rahman’s music coupled with Gulzar’s lyrics is mesmerizing but Mani hardly gives any time for any song to register any impact, as if in a quick hurry.
The subtle statement Mani incorporates against the system on behalf of the low caste have-nots is laudable but could have been a little more elaborate. Nevertheless, as Mani Ratnam’s metaphoric interpretation of the grand epic, Raavan definitely deserves a visit to your nearest cinema hall for its plusses certainly over ride its minuses.

Ek Second Jo Zindagi Badal De

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June 11, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Having missed the press show of the film, it was a tough job on my part to convince the multiplex staff to play this film which had no audience but just myself because I had to review this film. While they almost decided to cancel the show, they finally kept it on as two couples came in for the show, confident of seeking solace in the empty hall. Now if that, my dear friends, hasn’t given you any idea of how the film is! Well! Read on.
The film narrates the tale, rather the tales of Rashi (Manisha Koirala) who is engaged to the famous novelist Shantanu Rai (Moammar Rana). She is unaware of all the girls who were present in Shantanu’s life before. Then destiny plays a game bringing Rashi face to face with a situation when she loses her job and misses her train, the very same day. Here on, the narrative structure suggests two parts. One where she is unable to catch the train and what follows thereafter and second one where she manages to catch a train and meet Yuvraj (Jackie Shroff) – who is a fun loving and kind hearted person.
With a plot, that is blatantly copied from Gwyneth Paltrow starrer Sliding Doors (1998) which incidentally wasn’t much of a box office success, ESJZBD is a total bore. Though the bottom line of the plot suggests that whatever is destined to happen, do happen but if we fight against it and turn around the incident it will occur accordingly. But nowhere does the screenplay matches up to that. Badly written, and badly directed the film is a total waste of your time.
Director Partho Ghosh ,who had once delivered super hits like 100 Days, Agnisakshi and Dalaal has lost his form and this one shows that he has completely lost his technical finesse as well. One wonders who the target audience of this film is. Manisha Koirala may be making her comeback but audiences have lost interest in her already.
Manisha Koirala, in an author backed role, fails to evoke any interest due to her laid back style of acting. Jackie Shroff ,appears disinterested too. Pakistani actor Moammar Rana is mechanical. Nikita Anand looks hot and indulges in an uninhibited body display but displays very little of her acting talent. Rozza Catalano is just about okay but dances well in the item song. The producer of the film Suniel makes a blunder by casting himself in the film.
All in all, this is one of those films which shall be forgotten past its release day. Just avoid it!
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