Movie Review: India's Most Wanted

 India's Most Wanted: Not So Thrilling!

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"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...   

 

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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.

 

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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.

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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!

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" 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.

 

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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?

 

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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.

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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 

ZERO Movie Review

A Big ZERO for the Script and A 100 for SRK!

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"Logic plus logic equals the illogical. Do you know what I mean? " -- Jason Schwartzman

Many of you might be wondering like me what Jason Schwartzman actually want to make us understand and it is the same feeling we have when we watch Aanand L Rai's much-hyped SRK's Christmas release 'Zero". From the outset, Aanand L Rai's ZERO is an all-out entertainer but slowly and steadily slips into becoming a total drag and clichéd film.

Like the main protagonist Bauua Singh (Shahrukh Khan) doesn't know how he landed up in Mars from the streets of Meerut, we too as audience wonder why and how we too have been taken for a ride every festival by these big budget movies, superstars and production houses. In Zero, SRK's lucky mascots like Katrina Kaif, Abhay Deol, R Madhavan, Salman Khan, the late Sridevi, Kajol, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Juhi Chawla, Rani Mukherjee and many more make a beeline to impress you and make your Christmas merrier but unfortunately ends up dampening your spirit.

 

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Shahrukh Khan as a dwarf wins your heart. Bauua is naughty, mischievous, confused, daring, passionate, romantic and an obstinate son. He is a spendthrift according to his on-screen father Tigmanshu Dhulia. They are always at loggerheads because the former feels his son is irresponsible and lives on his money and the latter feels his father's inadequate sperm counts to be the reason for he being vertically challenged. Their interactions are hilarious and definitely tickle your funny bone.

 

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Anushka Sharma as Aafiya Yusufzai Bhinder a NASA scientist with cerebral palsy crosses path with Bauua Singh on an unusual ground and that changes the trajectory of their life. Anushka as Aafiya ­­­­tries her best to impress you by her cerebral palsy act but cannot match the performance Kalki gave us in Shonali Bose' film 'Margarita With A Straw'. Aafiya fails to touch your hearts and inspire you on what she achieved as a scientist; this might be because of its script that is so dwarfed that even these talented actors failed to revive the spirit of the film it had shown in the beginning.

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Bauua's friend and sidekick is good but unfortunately, a talented actor like him has nothing special to do and except changing the colour of his hair and carry a big torch always with him because he is one-eyed and the other one is 'Made in China'.

Katrina Kaif as the Bollywood siren Babita Kumari is beautiful and too good in her dance moves but equally disappointing as a heartbroken damsel. Abey Deol as her estranged boyfriend is cool. But as mentioned earlier why the crowd of star casts here in this film is really puzzling.

 

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This much-awaited King Khan's Christmas release definitely may draw the audience to the theatre to see the dwarfed Shahrukh Khan as Bauua Singh but Aanand L Rai, unfortunately, missed an opportunity to make 'Zero' a memorable movie. The filmmaker in its enthusiasm to present a small sized Shahrukh Khan knowingly or unknowingly dwarfed it's audience expectations too this Christmas.

The VFX is good, the song Mera Naam Tu is melodious and hummable.  

In short, it's high time that the big stars either reinvent them with some sensible content-driven films or take a really long break and allow other talented filmmakers and actors to get production houses supporting and funding their creative pieces of work. Go and watch Zero if you want to see a 'Baunna SRK' or give it a skip and go to a nearby church to listen to some awesome Christmas carols and eat a lot of cake with your favourite wine.

PEN Movie Review Rating: 2/5

Cast: Shahrukh Khan (Bauua Singh), Anushka Sharma (Aafia Yusufzai), Katrina Kaif (Babita Kumari), Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub ( Guddu), Tigmanshu Dhulia (Ashok), Sheeba Chaddha (Beena), Brijendra Kala (Pandey), Abhay Deol (Aditya Kapoor), R Madhavan (Sree, Fiancé of Aafia)

Genre: Romantic Drama

Director: Aanand L Rai

Producer: Gauri Khan

Written by: Himanshu Sharma

Screenplay: Himanshu Sharma

Story: Shankar

Music and Background Score: Ajay-Atul (Guest Composer: Tanisk Bagchi)

Cinematography: Manu Anand

Edited by: Hemal Kothari

Production Companies: Red Chillies Entertainment, Colour Yellow Productions

Distributor: Yash Raj Films

Release Date: 21 December, 2018

Duration: 164 Minutes

Language: Hindi 

2.0 Movie Review

2.0: A Ho-Hum Film Packaged With Striking Visuals!

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"I'm not a big fan of CGI. I'm not a fan at all unless they use it in a way that doesn't call attention to itself " -- Billy Cambell

Shankar's latest offer to his audience has raised the bar of CGI and visual effects many notches up for Indian cinema. It is quite evident from the start to end of the film 2.0 that Shankar had a single agenda to wow the audience with technology and to make it visually overpowering. The visuals were brilliant and exploding right in front of your faces, and you just had to ensure that you cleared out of the way.

You can do anything with CGI, and Shankar like any other enthusiastic kid who has learnt how to use a new gizmo goes blazing and blasting the world with his new antics on screen. And in the melee, he loses that sort of human dimension, and he gets all the stuff breaking the rules of physics. 

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Eight years back 'Enthiran' had a heart, fell in love, was possessive, got heartbroken and a story to tell but his 2.0 version is plastic, too comical and funny. There are millions of Chitti lookalikes spread all over on the screen forming different shapes and forms and keeps on and on till you get tired of its forms and formlessness yet its creator Shankar doesn't budge to stop.

Steven Spielberg once said - "People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don't have a middle, or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning." To be frank, I am a bit frightened; if this is what 2.0 is then what will be 3.0 in store for us? Shankar please, you have many accolades to beat your chest and undoubtedly you have offered good movies to us but then remember we love you for your stories and ability to take risk to experiment but then we have a humble request too to you, please do take care of the storyline and ensure that we take some feelings back home.

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2.0 is made on a colossal budget with Rajni 'The Super Star' and the 'Khilladiyon Ka Khilladi' Akshay Kumar. The fee that Akshay took, the time he spent for his makeup for his demonic look as Pakshi Rajan, Rajni's humility and his halo around him are all there on the internet with juicy inputs and pictures. Having said this, what we need to know is Akshay as Pakshi Rajan is compelling and Rajni as Dr Vassegran and his innumerable robots are brilliant but fail to hold interest for long in their performance. The character of Pakshiraja is not built properly, the bird-loving Professor is a lone fighter and is pathetic in his struggle against the system. Amy Jackson is beautiful and is there as a robot for serving her master. Funnily the gender bias of a patriarchal society is depicted by feeding in her serials, etc to show that women are women and men will never change the way they think of woman even if she adorns the same role what men play. The main motto of the film 'save birds from radiation' has raised a pertinent question but not on strong grounds to vouch for the claim and therefore fail to call for action at least in the minds of the viewers.

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In short, if you are a fan of Rajni and like video games go ahead and watch. And if anyone of you wants to cheer for Akki for his southern movie debut as the menacing Pakshi Rajan please go ahead. If you do not fall under the above mentioned two categories please stay at home and don't spend your hard earned money on these 'Thugs' of Hindustan who mince money by their advertisement and promotional campaigns and offer peanuts in terms of real takeaways as entertainment. No offence to any of the huge fan following who love their superheroes.

PEN Movie Review Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: Rajnikant (Vaseegaran, Chitti, 2.0 and 3.0 version), Akshay Kumar (Pakshi Rajan), Amy Jackson (Nila), Sudhanshu Pandey (Dhinendra, Adil Hussain ( Home Minister), K Ganesh (Jeyanth Kumar), Anant Mahadevan (Head of Meeting), Kalabhavan Shajohn (Minister of Telecommunications)

Genre: Science Fiction Action Film

Director: Shankar

Producers: A Subaskaran

Written by: Shankar, B Jeyamohan (Dialogues) (Hindi Dialogues Abbas Tyrewala)

Screenplay: Shankar

Story: Shankar

Music by: Songs: A R Rahman

Background Score: A R Rahman, Qutub-E-Kripa

Cinematography: Nirav Shah

Edited by: Anthony

Production Company: Lyca Productions

Distributor: Lyca Productions, Dharma Productions, AA Films

Release Date: 29 November, 2018

Duration: 147 Minutes

Language: Tamil (Dubbed in Hindi and Telugu)

Badhaai Ho (Movie Review)

'Badhaai Ho': An Unpretentious Family Entertainer!

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"Whether your pregnancy was meticulously planned, medically coaxed, or happened by surprise, one thing is certain - your life will never be the same" -- Catherine Jones

Amit Ravindernath Sharma's film 'Badhaai Ho' needs a huge 'Badhaai Ho' greetings for its highly relatable and entertaining middle-class family drama. It is not only a full-on entertainer but also a very touching movie that taps on your head to stop being hypocrite and conservative.

Bollywood is dishing out superb content-driven films off late, and I must say that 'Badhaai Ho' is one among the best that got released in recent times. The writers of the film - Shanatanu Srivastava, Akshat Ghildial (he is also the screenplay writer) and Jyoti Kapoor- have etched out each and every character and their dialogues so realistically well that within a few minutes of the movie as an audience you are glued within the family and it's hard to move out even when the end credit lines start rolling on screen.

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'Badhaai Ho' is about an Indian Northern Railway Traveling Ticket Examiner (TTE) Jeetender Kaushik and his family. The middle-aged Jitender Kaushik (Gajraj Rao) and his wife Priyamvada played by Neena Gupta didn't even imagine in their wildest dream that reading out a romantic poem written by Mr Kaushik, which got published in a local magazine, on a rainy night with their bedroom door tightly and safely latched would lead to a equally pleasant and shocking situation after fifteen weeks of their life. A tricky situation that had the potential to rock their otherwise smooth sailing family boat comprising of Kaushik's old mother (Sureka Sikri), a young son Nakul (Ayushmann Khurrana) who works in an IT firm and a school going teenager Gullar (Shardul Rana) who is enjoying the outside world and is curious to know about life and its pleasures.

What follows is hilarious, emotional and eventful that give much ammo to the storytelling of "Badhaai Ho'. The embarrassment of a middle-aged couple who are, perplexed and in dilemma about announcing about the unexpected pregnancy to two young sons and an ageing granny of their children in a closely-knit middle-class colony is well portrayed.

The real stars of the movie are Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta both bankable actors in their own capacities. Neena Gupta as a wife, daughter-in-law who is constantly bickered by her mother-in-law and as a mother is excellent. She is at her best and is commendably natural. Ayushmann Khurrana as Nakul and Sanya Malhotra as Renee Sharma are paired well. They complement each other well in their roles. Sheeba Chaddha as Renne's mother portrays an upper-middle-class single mother apparently progressive who gives the liberty to her daughter to discuss anything under the sun. Her character as Sangeeta Sharma unmasks the conservative and judgmental personality we hide within our self-projected progressive beings when it comes to dealing with situations that rock the so-called equilibrium of a society and its untold norms.

What irks us as an audience about the film is the mixed accent of the characters used inconsistently like Punjabi, Haryanvi, Hindi and the colloquial expressions. Nevertheless, this can be overlooked and doesn't bother much after some time because of the actors and the storyline.

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Music by Tanishk Bagchi, Rochak Kohli and Jam8 is full of life and is celebratory. The singers Ayushmann, Guru Randhawa, Dev Negi, Jordan, Brijesh Shandilya, Romy and Neha Kakkar are bang on. Ayushmann Khurrana's song 'Nain Na Jodeen' is soulful and hummable. Sanu Varghese, the cinematographer has done a wonderful job. Dev Rao Jaddhav deserves a special mention for his wonderful editing which keeps the movie crisp and leaves the audience at the end wanting for more.

In short, Life isn't full of surprises as people often say, I feel the contrary, it is we who surprises life with our reactions, responses and actions. Life had been always the same freely flowing undeterred naturally brushing the banks of reality and fantasy, it is we human that get colored by our lenses and fail to understand and savour the beauty of life and its twists and turns. So, go and watch 'Badhaai Ho' and greet yourself and everyone else in your life "Badhaai Ho' for all those things that surprise you and others pleasantly and even unpleasantly.

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 4/5

Cast: Gajraj Rao (Jeetender Kaushik), Neena Gupta (Priyamvada Kaushik), Ayushmann Khurrana (Nakul), Shardul Rana (Gullar), Sanya Malhotra (Renee), Dadi (Sureka Sikri), Sheeba Chaddha (Sangeeta Sharma), Rahul Tewari (Junaa)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma

Producers: Vineet Jain, Aleya Sen, Hemant Bhandari, Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Sushil Choudhury, Priti Sahani

Written by: Shanatanu Srivastava, Akshat Gildial, Jyoti Kapoor

Screenplay: Akshat Gildial

Music by: Tanishk Bagchi, Rochal Kohli, Jam8

Background Score: Abhishek Arora

Cinematography: Sanu Varghese

Edited by: Dev Rao Jadhav

Production Company: Junglee Pictures, Chrome Pictures

Distributor: AA Films

Release Date: 18 October 2018

Duration: 123 Minutes

Language: Hindi