Made in China Movie Review

‘Made in China’ Movie Review:

 A Hilarious Entrepreneurial Journey!

Image Courtesy: koimoi.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end” – Jessica Herrin

Made in China’s Raghuvir Mehta in short Raghu (Rajkummar Rao) is a young man who is not ready to quit even after thirteen failed endeavours until he becomes a successful businessman. He is continuously discouraged and taunted because of consistent failure in all his endeavours by his wealthy and pompous uncle Vhinde Bhai (Manoj Joshi) and his cousin (Sumeet Vyas) who is a xerox copy of his father. Raghu had tried his luck on everything from selling Nepali carpets, Eggs of Emu, Chappathi maker and to what not; as the proverb goes – “Just when the caterpillar thought, the world was over, it became a butterfly” Raghu didn’t even imagine in his wildest dream that his visit to China would turn out to be a new beginning clubbed with lots of unprecedented twists and turns.

Vhinde Bhai forcibly sent Raghu along with Devraj to China for a business presentation, thinking that he will learn some skills from his brother and make the Mehtas proud. But things don’t work as planned and his cousin is outrightly rejected by a Gujarati business genius Tanmay Shah (Paresh Rawal) in the first business meeting itself. As Devraj walks out of the meeting, the business wizard strikes a chord with Raghu and tells him that he has a bright future and invites him for a party. Raghu gets bowled over by his business acumen when he sees  Tanmay Shah selling the Gujarati delicacy Thepela to a bunch of his foreigner friends so effortlessly. Charged by his experience in China, Raghu returns with two things with him – one, a magic soup that works as an aphrodisiac to enhance virility and two, the guru mantra given to him by Mr Shah that ‘Customers are fools’.

Image Courtesy: hindustantimes.com

Raghu armed with his newfound potent product ‘The Magic Soup' does exactly what Mandy Hale has aptly pointed out – “There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others”. Raghu collaborates with Dr Vardhi (Boman Irani) a sexologist who was shunted out of Bhutan for his controversial sex awareness program he pursued there, which made him finally restrict himself to a small clinic in Ahmedabad treating patients who occasionally visited him. What follows is a team handpicked by both of them to manufacture, promote and sell 'The Magic Soup'.

The above-mentioned story is not enough to gauge what happens next because Raghu’s entrepreneurial journey is full of potholes that he needs to be careful off and pursue his journey to leave a mark as a successful businessman.  One needs to watch this movie to know whether he becomes successful in keeping the customers, his wife, his uncle, cousin and the Indian and Chinese government fools for long.  It is also interesting to know how he got allegedly linked to the murder of a Chinese General in Ahmedabad who got killed by helping himself with a bowl of 'The Magic Soup'.

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Mikhil Musale, the maker of the national award-winning Gujarati film ‘Wrong Side Raju’, has co-written and directed the film Made in China. He starts off the film as a murder thriller and slowly like a  chameleon changes the story's  focuses on the journey of an overly ambitious young man’s entrepreneurial struggle and then suddenly slips into a sex awareness program where he speaks volumes on how Indians shy away from speaking the word Sex in public and how virility for many is ‘Power’. Amidst all these the filmmaker finds pleasure in spouting some below the belt humour which is very funny. The role of Gajraj Rao as Abhay Chopra, a motivational trainer is half baked and fails to do justice to such a talented actor. Mouni Roy (Rukmini) is full of Oomph and it seems that she is there unfortunately for that only. She as the better half of Raghu is in no way match to his simplicity as a Gujrati guy and even falls short of having a Gujrati accent. Her reaction to his newfound business venture is contrary to the character she portrays.  Rukmini is bold, open, ready to explore and talk without any inhibition on taboo topics like sexual satisfaction, orgasm and share a drink with her husband outside but can't take her husband selling performance enhancement products without her knowledge and feels that he has fallen from grace as a person. 

In short, Made in China is at least better than Shilpi Dasgupta’s ‘Khandaani Shafahkana, but fails to tell a story well on a serious topic humorously.   You can still watch this film but with zero expectations. Go for Rajkummar Rao and the show stealer Boman Irani as Dr Vardhi, the 70-year-old sexologist. Maybe you may walk out of the theatre realizing that you are being fooled as a customer by many every day, if so, Jaago Grahak Jaago.

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: Rajkummar Rao (Raghuvir Mehta), Mouni Roy (Rukmini Mehta), Boman Irani (Dr Vardhi), Amyra Dastur (Roopa), Paresh Rawal (Tanmay Shah), Gajraj Rao (Chopra), Sumeet Vyas (Devraj), Manj Joshi (Vhinde Bhai), Amit Bimrot (Ravi Panchal), Chittaranjan Tripathy and Abhishek Banerjee (CBI Officers)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Mikhil Musale

Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Sharada Karki Jalota

Written by: Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas (Dialogues)

Based on the book: Made in China by Parinda Joshi

Story by: Mikhil Musale, Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas, Parinda Joshi

Music by: Sachin-Jigar

Background Score: John Stewart Eduri

Cinematography: Anuj Rakesh Dhawan

Edited by: Manan Ashwin Mehta

Production Company: Maddock Films, Jio Studios

Distributor: AA Films

Release Date: 25 October 2019

Duration: 128 Minutes

Language: Hindi

Super 30 : Movie Review

'Super 30': The Story of Ekalavyas!

Image Courtesy: cinetalkers.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all" -- Aristotle

The 155 minutes long film 'Super 30' takes you through a journey of modern-day Ekalavaya who triumphed upon adversities and has become a beacon of hope for all those who are fighting to pull down the walls of conventional educational systems and methodologies that are only affordable and accessible to the privileged.

In a country like India, Che Guevera's quotes becomes more relevant - "A country that does not know how to read and write is easy to deceive."  Vikas Bahl's film Super 30 is inspirational and is based on a real-life hero called Anand Kumar and his educational program 'Super 30'.

Image Courtesy: jagran.com

The film draws parallels with the epic drama 'Mahabharata' and its mystical characters like Dronacharya - the Guru and his blue-eyed disciple Arjun, towards whom he evidently had a bias. Without naming Ekalavya, the film questions the decision of Drona to coach only the privileged (The Royal Blood) and negate the right of Ekalavya (The Under Privileged) to learn archery. The film slowly pans on to our educational system which has been commercialized by pro-rich policies which have resulted into mushrooming of innumerable coaching institutes and educational firms claiming to guarantee 100% success and state of the art infrastructure at a heavy price. Most of the students who end up here are children of those parents who have set high goals for their children and pay through the nose. There are many more hapless parents who end up going for educational loans or even mortgaging their hard-earned assets.

Anand Kumar's life itself is a living example of how his father, a postman, had to run from pillar to post to get his son go to Harvard after receiving a scholarship offer letter based on his piece of work that got published in a foreign scientific journal. Unfortunately, they both failed miserably to gather the required amount to see him off to his dream university.

Image Courtesy: hindirush.com

The impeccable Hrithik Roshan as Anand Kumar effortlessly strikes a chord with you as a teacher on a mission. He is hard to resist and is a powerhouse who inspires you to stand up for your right to educate and live a life of respect and regard. There is a dialogue by him on his hospital bed when he says ' Bahuth hogaya padai, abh hai ladne ki baari' ( You have done enough studies, now it's time to fight) that leaves you charged and touched. The story is heart-wrenching at the same time a great lesson that reminds us of the much-quoted Mexican Proverb - "They tried to bury us. They didn't realize we were seeds".

Sreekar Prasad's deft editing, Anay Goswamy's cinematography, and Ajay-Atul's music keep you hooked to the film. Vikas Bahl had earned a brownie point by directing this movie and proving his mettle once again as a director. Hope he finds and engages himself more in making meaningful movies rather getting embroiled in controversies, scandals, accusations and Me too. One needs to understand that talents are rare and therefore, the world can't afford to lose them.

In short, the film 'Super 30' is a must-watch for all those who are not only just the fans of Hrithik but also for them who want to see and believe that there are people on a mission who really want to see this world changed. So let's go and watch the movie and celebrate their failures and triumphs together.

Let's carry home what Anand Kumar says on-screen - "Apne liye khoob chikna sadak banaye... Hummare raah mai itna bada bada gadda khodiye lekin yehi vo sabse badi galti kardiye... humko saala challang marna seekha diye"  (They made beautiful roads for themselves and made potholes all the way for us... this is their biggest mistake that they have done because by doing so, they made us learn how to leap ahead!).

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 4/5

Cast: Hrithik Roshan (Anand Kumar), Mrunal Thakur (Ritu Rashmi, Anand's love interest), Virendra Saxena (Anand's father), Nandish Singh (Anand's brother), Pankaj Tripathi (Minister), Aditya Shrivastava (Lallan Singh), Amit Sadh (Journalist Raghunath)

Genre: Biography, Drama

Director: Vikas Bahl

Producers: Phantom Films, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment

Written by: Sanjeev Dutta

Based on: Life of Anand Kumar

Music by: Ajay-Atul

Cinematography: Anay Goswamy

Edited by: A Sreekar Prasad

Production Company: Phantom Films, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment, HRX Films

Distributor: Reliance Entertainment, PVR Pictures

Release Date: 12 July 2019

Duration: 155 Minutes

Language: Hindi

Movie Review: India's Most Wanted

 India's Most Wanted: Not So Thrilling!

Image Courtesy: indiatvnews.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now, do you begin to understand me? " -- George Orwell

Raj Kumar Gupta's film 'India's Most Wanted' is about one of the dreaded terrorists Yasin Bhatkal and his arrest from Nepal's Pokhara in 2013. Based on the true story on how Yasin, the NIA Most Wanted, was traced and arrested by a bunch of daring and committed intelligence officers, the film obviously generated much amount of curiosity among the public before its release.

The plot on paper is definitely interesting and sums up for a good crime thriller movie but unfortunately Raj Kumar Gupta who gave us films like Aamir, No One Killed Jessica and the last year's hit film Raid fails us by presenting a placid and sluggish not so thrilling film. The film is not so impressive in many fronts like -  the storytelling is slow, lacks momentum and suspense of a crime thriller; the casting of actors are not so convincing as investigative agents and officials; the villain is mentioned as a Ghost and the scenes where he is nabbed by the officials is laughable and funny, the wig of the villain looks like he has just walked out of a school's skit and the list is more...   

 

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Arjun Kapoor as the police officer in charge, to nab the most wanted has tried his best to underplay his role and not to be loud but in his deliberate effort to be so, he turns out to be unimpressive and ineffective. Most of the time he is found pleading to his seniors contrary to his portrayal that he is the one who carries out his covert operations without the consent of his seniors, if required to safeguard the country's interest. His body language, dialogue delivery and his leadership lacks the punch of an Ant-Terror Squad Leader who is on a most important hunt to nab the 'Osama' of India.

The team that accompanies Prabhat Kumar (Arjun Kapoor) are found most of the time in panic, confused, self-doubting and often looking for answers from their boss. It is like Prabhat picked up people from the streets to experiment with to execute the most crucial and challenging operation to nab the dreaded criminal. For instance, even if that is the case there is nothing to substantiate and justify it. Prashanth Alexander as Pillai has nothing to do like his other teammates except mouth Malayalam dialogues. Sudev Nair who had won the Kerala State Award for Best Actor for his debut film 'My Life Partner' should have verified, checked and explored the role before he signed the dotted lines to play the dreaded criminal because he is most of the time masked and have little to say and do. I wish him better luck next time.

 

Image Courtesy: in.reuters.com

Rajesh Sharma as the boss of Prabhat is the one who tries his best so that he ups the ante on suspense and thrill. But even he keeps stopping Prabhat from taking up this dangerous job by being too protective and calling him back now and then. Rajesh Sharma's efforts to influence the higher levels to garner support to make the operation successful is portrayed with no amount of twists and turns that result in no thrilling experience.

The climax scene is childish and very raw. The police force and the army waiting at the Indo-Nepal border and the transfer of the dreaded terrorists to the Indian hands finally is shot so dismally that the NIA officers are found running towards the terrorists for no reason  to catch hold of them who are already under control, They still pull, drag, shake them and the two with black goggles and weird wigs look like two blind men being brutalized by some men in uniform.

Image Courtesy: scroll.in

I think, Raj Kumar Gupta missed a great chance to tell a story about a youth Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa aka Yasin Bhatkal from South India who was doctored to commit heinous terror attacks on innocent people at various parts of India that made the soul of India tremble with fear. He failed to even say why this man is called the 'The Most Wanted' and how this man executed such series of blasts with precision across the country; and where and how did the government machinery fail.  This man was on news once again for being a protest leader in Tihar jail in the month of April 2019, though lodged in an isolated high-security cell he still manages to interact and instigate other prisoners. Raj Kumar Gupta also missed a chance to truly hail the unsung heroes/the faceless heroes who play significant roles in ensuring peace in the country by not handpicking the best to write, act and execute the plot on the big screen.  

If you are looking for a crime thriller that shall keep you glued at the edge of your seat then this is not the one for you. Give it a pass.

PEN Movie Rating: 1.5/5

Cast: Arjun Kapoor (Prabhat), Rajesh Sharma (Rajesh Singh), Prashanth Alexander (Pillai), Shantilal Mukherjee (Shaumik Biswas), Sudev Nair (Yusuf)

Genre: Crime Thriller

Director: Raj Kumar Gupta

Producer: Fox Star Studios, Raj Kumar Gupta, Myra Karn

Written by: Written By Raj Kumar Gupta

Music by: Amit Trivedi

Cinematography: Dudley

Edited by: Rakesh Yadav, Bodhaditya Banerjee

Production Companies: Fox Star Studios, Raapchik Films

Distributor: Fox Star Studios

Release Date: 24 May 2019

Duration: 123 Minutes

Language: Hindi

Badla (Movie Review)

 Sujoy Ghosh's 'Badla' Dampens The Friday Excitement!

Image Courtesy: imdb.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

" Revenge is sweet and not fattening" -- Alfred Hitchcock

'Badla' as the word rightly suggest 'Revenge' is what you will find in Sujoy Ghosh's Friday outing with Amitabh Bachchan and Taapse Pannu. What is more interesting about the film is that it starts off as a gripping story of unravelling a murder mystery with a high profile ambitious businesswoman in question but unfortunately it turns out to be spiralling continuously nowhere. The one-room drama is so stretched that you fall sick in the darkness of the theatre unable to hear further the umpteen versions of the 'if and buts' of the possible reason and causes of the murder revolving around the suspect.

Amitabh Bachchan is at his verbal best as always and its nothing new for the audience. It is only for him that you can watch and bear the coffee table discussion of his with Tapsee Pannu on a murder mystery. The lengthy and boring discussion between an astute barrister Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) and his client and suspect Naina Sethi is many a time laughable and funny. A visibly uninterested Tapsee Pannu doesn't exhibit the calibre and talent she displayed in Pink and Mulk in this character as Naina Sethi.

 

Image Courtesy: bollywoodtadka.in

Naina Sethi (Tapsee Pannu) a high profile businesswoman is in an affair and is caught unaware in a life-changing event that turns her life topsy-turvy and she gets entangled into a web of crime that becomes nearly impossible for her to untwine. Badal Gupta a legal hawk who has never lost a legal battle in his career has agreed to take up his last case before his retirement on the request of his friend Jimmy (Manav Kaul) a legal advisor to Naina Seth.

Amrita Singh as Rani and her husband Nirmal (Tanveer Ghani) find themselves caught in the same web of Naina and are engaged devising ways and methods to solve the riddle of their missing son Sunny Singh Toor (Antonio Aakeel). Amrita Singh is nowhere near to her characters she played well in the recent past as  - Neena Wadhwa, Kavita Malhotra, Principal - in films like Aurangazeb, 2 States and Hindi Medium, respectively. Manav Kaul a talented actor has nothing much to do. He is made to mouth dialogues like 'Tum nervous nahi ho, tho mai Amitabh Bachchan hun" - God knows what he meant?

 

Image Courtesy: bollywoodhungama.com

Tony Luke the Malayalam actor who had been part of many Malayalam hits, has given a decent performance but doesn't leave much impact as Arjun who has a sneaky affair with Naina in Badla.

After a series of disastrous Fridays, Badla was a hope for many cinema lovers  but Sujoy Ghosh even after an official adaptation of a Spanish Film 'Contratiempo' (The Invisible Guest) made by Oriol Paulo fails to ignite the magic he created in the past with his much-discussed movies like Jhankar Beats,  Kahani, Kahani 2: Durga Rani and his short film Ahalya.

Image Courtesy: gnsnews.co.in

The much talked about 'cameo' of Shahrukh Khan in Badla turned to be a rumour and probably a publicity stunt. The film has five original compositions but unfortunately, none of them strikes your fancy.  

In short, there is a dialogue by Amitabh Bachchan who tired of his client Naina Sethi's changing statements says "Your Character Starts Learning Anything At Any Point of Time and Starts Doing Things" this statement applies for the film and the filmmaker who made this movie.

Quoting Alfred Hitchcock once again and with an apology to him 'Sir this revenge story of Sujoy Gosh is fattening because one doesn't realize the number of tubs of popcorn and the number of Samosa he had with the extra cups of coffee he ordered to ward off his boredom.

PEN Movie Rating: 1.5/5

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan (Badal Gupta), Taapsee Pannu (Naina Sethi), Amrita Singh (Rani Kaur), Tanveer Ghani (Nirmal), Tony Luke (Arjun), Sheeba Chaddha (Beena), Brijendra Kala (Pandey), Abhay Deol (Aditya Kapoor), Antonio Aakeel (Sunny Singh Toor)

Genre: Crime Mystery Thriller

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Producer: Gauri Khan, Sunir Khetarpal, Akshai Puri, Gaurav Verma

Written by: Sujoy Ghosh, Raj Vasant (Dialogues)

Screenplay: Sujoy Ghosh

Story: Oriol Paulo

Music by: Amaal Mallik, Anupam Roy, Clinton Cerejo

Cinematography: Avik Mukhopadhyay

Edited by: Monisha R Baldawa

Production Companies: Red Chillies Entertainment, Azure Entertainment

Distributor: AA Films, ZEE Studios

Release Date: 08 March, 2019

Duration: 118 Minutes

Language: Hindi