Housefull 2 Movie Review

Film: Housefull 2

Starring: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ritesh

Director: Sajid Khan

Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala

Banner: Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment,Eros Internation

Music: Sajid, Wajid

Ratings : 2.75/5

Gags galore. Laughs? Well, not as many as you'd expect in a 180-minute marathon mirth machine. Somehow, the jokes get choked in the comic ritual of repetition. Once you figure out who's who and who's ha-ha in the farce fest, the attempts to cram as many characters into every frame as humanly possible begins to take its toll on the comic equilibrium of this tale of intermittent titters and some genuine laughs.

So what's "Housefull 2" about? Wrong question. Beyond a point, it's only about keeping the embers of satire alive by hook or by over-cook. Somewhere down line the witticism wears thin. But there are comic actors of terrific aptitude holding aloft the thinner segments in the farcical fabric.

Just look at the lineup. Real-life brothers Randhir and Rishi Kapoor on screen for the first time together. Wow wee!Each time they appear on screen the theme from Raj Kapoor's cinema plays slyly in the background. As brothers turned enemies sharing a wall of history in 'Great' Britain, the Kapoor brothers take much longer to thaw and embrace one another than the other actors.

The plot is propelled forward by pairs of hostile actors who come together by the mid-point…Asin and Jacqueline playing blathering bimbos who also happen to be warring cousins, seem to find no pleasure in their characters beyond swooning in their screen-lover's arms once too often. Akshay Kumar and John Abraham (the former getting the comic timing right, the latter trying so hard the effort shows) hate one another because at their college dance John caught his girlfriend with Akshay in the closet.

Once out of the closet the fun quotient never really stops for Akshay. He is in his rogue's element running helter-skelter between dacoit-turned-English aristocrat Mithun Chakraborty and his Man Friday Johnny Lever.

The male actors get the sur of the steep satire right. But the ladies, they're a little lost in the melee of mirth. Asin who has the meatiest role among the girls is listless. Making 25 faces in every frame doesn't constitute money's worth acting.

Sajid Khan shoots the ladies in exotic locations. The camera is never voyeuristic. The mood is often slapstick. But the gags never cross the limits of vulgarity. The verbal exchanges are largely free of double meanings. Yup, this comedy could be watched by the family without the dialogue writing band-bajaoing Papa and Mama's censorial rules.

It is interesting to see how Sajid Khan employs old traditional Bollywood conventions, like a flashback where two friends swear to give away one another's kids in marriage when the time is right, and an incredibly lengthy and pointless fight sequence where Dara Singh's son Vindoo jumps out of a wheelchair and gets beaten up by our bunch of belligerent heroes.

Such archaic formula-baazi is synthesized with more contemporary concepts of cinematic entertainment. All in all you come away from "Housefull 2" with a feeling that the vast cast seems to get the mood of riotous fun. They seem to have such fun that the audience can't help getting infected by their non-stop party mood.

"Housefull 2" takes the comic vein further than the first Housefull film. Sajid's plot, characters and situations keep the chuckle fest vibrant and alive till the end. This is at times a wicked and funny farce with sparkling comic talent displayed by every male actor.

Read More

Housefull 2 Movie Review

Film: Housefull 2

Starring: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ritesh

Director: Sajid Khan

Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala

Banner: Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment,Eros Internation

Music: Sajid, Wajid

Ratings : 2.75/5

Gags galore. Laughs? Well, not as many as you'd expect in a 180-minute marathon mirth machine. Somehow, the jokes get choked in the comic ritual of repetition. Once you figure out who's who and who's ha-ha in the farce fest, the attempts to cram as many characters into every frame as humanly possible begins to take its toll on the comic equilibrium of this tale of intermittent titters and some genuine laughs.

So what's "Housefull 2" about? Wrong question. Beyond a point, it's only about keeping the embers of satire alive by hook or by over-cook. Somewhere down line the witticism wears thin. But there are comic actors of terrific aptitude holding aloft the thinner segments in the farcical fabric.

Just look at the lineup. Real-life brothers Randhir and Rishi Kapoor on screen for the first time together. Wow wee!Each time they appear on screen the theme from Raj Kapoor's cinema plays slyly in the background. As brothers turned enemies sharing a wall of history in 'Great' Britain, the Kapoor brothers take much longer to thaw and embrace one another than the other actors.

The plot is propelled forward by pairs of hostile actors who come together by the mid-point…Asin and Jacqueline playing blathering bimbos who also happen to be warring cousins, seem to find no pleasure in their characters beyond swooning in their screen-lover's arms once too often. Akshay Kumar and John Abraham (the former getting the comic timing right, the latter trying so hard the effort shows) hate one another because at their college dance John caught his girlfriend with Akshay in the closet.

Once out of the closet the fun quotient never really stops for Akshay. He is in his rogue's element running helter-skelter between dacoit-turned-English aristocrat Mithun Chakraborty and his Man Friday Johnny Lever.

The male actors get the sur of the steep satire right. But the ladies, they're a little lost in the melee of mirth. Asin who has the meatiest role among the girls is listless. Making 25 faces in every frame doesn't constitute money's worth acting.

Sajid Khan shoots the ladies in exotic locations. The camera is never voyeuristic. The mood is often slapstick. But the gags never cross the limits of vulgarity. The verbal exchanges are largely free of double meanings. Yup, this comedy could be watched by the family without the dialogue writing band-bajaoing Papa and Mama's censorial rules.

It is interesting to see how Sajid Khan employs old traditional Bollywood conventions, like a flashback where two friends swear to give away one another's kids in marriage when the time is right, and an incredibly lengthy and pointless fight sequence where Dara Singh's son Vindoo jumps out of a wheelchair and gets beaten up by our bunch of belligerent heroes.

Such archaic formula-baazi is synthesized with more contemporary concepts of cinematic entertainment. All in all you come away from "Housefull 2" with a feeling that the vast cast seems to get the mood of riotous fun. They seem to have such fun that the audience can't help getting infected by their non-stop party mood.

"Housefull 2" takes the comic vein further than the first Housefull film. Sajid's plot, characters and situations keep the chuckle fest vibrant and alive till the end. This is at times a wicked and funny farce with sparkling comic talent displayed by every male actor.

Read More

DON 2 MOVIE REVIEW

Shah Rukh's 'Don 2' is a cool thriller-Movie Review

Film: Don 2

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta,

Director: Farhan Akhtar

Producer: Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shahrukh Khan

Banner: Excel Entertainment,Reliance Entertainment

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

RATING : 3.75/5

The King says he is back. Long live the King. King Khan, or Shah Rukh as some of us prefer to call him, is seen at the pinnacle of precociousness in this pitch-perfect tongue-in-cheek homage to the espionage thriller.

But this is not your average 'Don-returns-because-he-had-to' kind of predictable sequel. Farhan Akhtar with the keen participation of his ebullient writer Ameet Mehta and Amrish Shah, comes up with a cool concoction that prefers to let the action speak louder than words.

There are enough throwaway lines given to Don to make him fly high as a superhero of the underworld even when he's locked away for life? Like Tom Cruise in "Misssion Impossible 4" last week, Shah Rukh's journey into valiant viciousness begins with a jailbreak. It then speeds into a kind of con caper which could go anywhere. It goes to Switzerland where the action is relentless. And it's not only about the flying bullets and speeding cars.

Don's world is governed by a kind of subverted moral censorship where he, and nobody else, decides right from wrong. Into this world of win-win wickedness where Don reigns supreme, Farhan Akhtar infuses an intelligence that isn't only connected to agencies.

Queerly, Don doesn't encourage human ties. And since Don decides the destiny of the plot the relationships within the plot therefore do not grow substantially. Farhan portrays human attachment almost as an embarrassment, a hyphen in a film that is punctuated with exclamation marks. The ony tender moment in the screenplay occurs when an affable computer hacker (Kunal Kapoor) caresses his pregnant wife's belly. The moment passes quickly. And we move to Don's next level of purported ingenuity.

The relationship between Don and his 'junglee billi' Roma (Priyanka Chopra, hair, makeup and clothes and not much else in place) is barely given a nod by the screenplay. You wonder how Don calls her Junglee Billi since she's so immaculate and impervious all through. Maybe it's a private joke between them. We will never know. Or would we?

Watch out for Don 3. Hopefully Don would be married to Roma and growing vegetables in a village in Spain while the Interpol follows his trail in Pakistan.

Not all of it makes sense. Some of it, you suspect, is pointless to even Don himself. But the film exudes a kind of uber-chic temperament that we've hardly ever seen in our films.

Precocious and audacious, with his tongue wedged stubbornly in his cheek, Don is back in edgy laconic look back in rancour. The chase is restrained. The thrills are austere, almost severe. Farhan Akhtar is determined not to go over-the-top even as his evil protagonist does just that.

Read More

DON 2 MOVIE REVIEW

Shah Rukh's 'Don 2' is a cool thriller-Movie Review

Film: Don 2

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta,

Director: Farhan Akhtar

Producer: Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shahrukh Khan

Banner: Excel Entertainment,Reliance Entertainment

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

RATING : 3.75/5

The King says he is back. Long live the King. King Khan, or Shah Rukh as some of us prefer to call him, is seen at the pinnacle of precociousness in this pitch-perfect tongue-in-cheek homage to the espionage thriller.

But this is not your average 'Don-returns-because-he-had-to' kind of predictable sequel. Farhan Akhtar with the keen participation of his ebullient writer Ameet Mehta and Amrish Shah, comes up with a cool concoction that prefers to let the action speak louder than words.

There are enough throwaway lines given to Don to make him fly high as a superhero of the underworld even when he's locked away for life? Like Tom Cruise in "Misssion Impossible 4" last week, Shah Rukh's journey into valiant viciousness begins with a jailbreak. It then speeds into a kind of con caper which could go anywhere. It goes to Switzerland where the action is relentless. And it's not only about the flying bullets and speeding cars.

Don's world is governed by a kind of subverted moral censorship where he, and nobody else, decides right from wrong. Into this world of win-win wickedness where Don reigns supreme, Farhan Akhtar infuses an intelligence that isn't only connected to agencies.

Queerly, Don doesn't encourage human ties. And since Don decides the destiny of the plot the relationships within the plot therefore do not grow substantially. Farhan portrays human attachment almost as an embarrassment, a hyphen in a film that is punctuated with exclamation marks. The ony tender moment in the screenplay occurs when an affable computer hacker (Kunal Kapoor) caresses his pregnant wife's belly. The moment passes quickly. And we move to Don's next level of purported ingenuity.

The relationship between Don and his 'junglee billi' Roma (Priyanka Chopra, hair, makeup and clothes and not much else in place) is barely given a nod by the screenplay. You wonder how Don calls her Junglee Billi since she's so immaculate and impervious all through. Maybe it's a private joke between them. We will never know. Or would we?

Watch out for Don 3. Hopefully Don would be married to Roma and growing vegetables in a village in Spain while the Interpol follows his trail in Pakistan.

Not all of it makes sense. Some of it, you suspect, is pointless to even Don himself. But the film exudes a kind of uber-chic temperament that we've hardly ever seen in our films.

Precocious and audacious, with his tongue wedged stubbornly in his cheek, Don is back in edgy laconic look back in rancour. The chase is restrained. The thrills are austere, almost severe. Farhan Akhtar is determined not to go over-the-top even as his evil protagonist does just that.

Read More

LADIES VS RICKY BEHL MOVIE REVIEW

Film: Ladies VS Ricky Bahl

Starring: Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma

Director: Maneesh Sharma

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Banner: Yash Raj Films

Music: Salim-Sulaiman

RATING : 3/5

Please don't look for another "Band Baaja Baaraat" from the Ranveer Singh-Anushka Sharma-Maneesh Sharma team. And chances are, you will come away from "Ladies Vs Ricky Behl" with a feeling of having seen a smoothly-sculpted con caper about a suave charlatan who wins over 31….or is it 32?...women and then breaks their heart while running away with their bank balance.

We only see the con man, played with sly suaveness by Ranveer Singh hoodwink four women. The first three episodes where Ricky Behl (yup, that's his name but we know it only at the end) cons first a bubbly loud Punjabi business family's fun-loving girl (played with endearing effervescence by Parineeta Chopra), then a uptight hoity-toity business executive (Dipannita Sharma, accomplished) and then simple widow from lucknow (Aditi Sharma, sweet) are cut beautifully, like a well-tailored roomy band-gala sherwani.

Suresh Sharma's editing moves through Ranveer character's various escapades with a direct deftness that leaves no room for loose moments. However, a bagginess creeps into the narration in the second-half when Ranveer meets his match (in more ways than one) in Goa. Here, the chemistry is more laboured than luminous.

Though Goa is captured with pristine picturesqueness, the Ranveer-Anushka relationship in the second-half falters due to a lack of inner conviction. Though the writing is smooth textured and layered, the mellow momentum is forfeited once it's payback time for the con man.

Anushka Sharma's predictable bubbly-on-the-prowl act here often seems selfconscious and repetitive. Could we please see this bundle of energy do something else? And really, her introductory song is more a homage to Ram Gopal Varma's "Rangeela" than a panoramic look-see at Anushaka's character's heartland.

The songs and choreography are more erotic diversions.

Ranveer Singh gets his act together with great care for details. Each step of his con game is charted carefully with the right physique, body language clothes and accessories. Yup, this actor works hard on getting it right and succeeds. If the highlight in "Band Baajaa Baraat" was the sequence where Ranveer's character blurted out his love for Anushka, here too Ranveer gets the love-confession sequence just right.

Here's an interesting actor who matches his enthusiasm level with a compelling quotient of sensitivity .

Fatally, we never know what motivates Ricky Behl. Why does he do what he does? Is he a benign fan of Shah Rukh Khan over-dosing on the "Baazigar" philosophy of fooling women for money?

If the narrative tends to run through a blind alley quite often it also finds its way into a luminous light often enough to make us feel favourably towards the overall products. The locational details and the character-specifications are done with rare care. The three actresses Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma and Dipannati Sharma playing Ricky's three scorned women slip effortlessly into their roles.

As for Anushka she is a fearless actress, not afraid to let her emotions overrule her makeup. At the end of the film when she dresses up as Santa Claus to smooch Ranveer Singh in shopping mall, there isn't that same feeling of breathless exhilaration we felt when Ranveer and Anushka kissed in their previous film together.

As far as con capers go, "Ladies Vs Ricky Behl" moves at an engaging pace long enough to qualify as a rom-com which looks and feels right.

Read More

LADIES VS RICKY BEHL MOVIE REVIEW

Film: Ladies VS Ricky Bahl

Starring: Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma

Director: Maneesh Sharma

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Banner: Yash Raj Films

Music: Salim-Sulaiman

RATING : 3/5

Please don't look for another "Band Baaja Baaraat" from the Ranveer Singh-Anushka Sharma-Maneesh Sharma team. And chances are, you will come away from "Ladies Vs Ricky Behl" with a feeling of having seen a smoothly-sculpted con caper about a suave charlatan who wins over 31….or is it 32?...women and then breaks their heart while running away with their bank balance.

We only see the con man, played with sly suaveness by Ranveer Singh hoodwink four women. The first three episodes where Ricky Behl (yup, that's his name but we know it only at the end) cons first a bubbly loud Punjabi business family's fun-loving girl (played with endearing effervescence by Parineeta Chopra), then a uptight hoity-toity business executive (Dipannita Sharma, accomplished) and then simple widow from lucknow (Aditi Sharma, sweet) are cut beautifully, like a well-tailored roomy band-gala sherwani.

Suresh Sharma's editing moves through Ranveer character's various escapades with a direct deftness that leaves no room for loose moments. However, a bagginess creeps into the narration in the second-half when Ranveer meets his match (in more ways than one) in Goa. Here, the chemistry is more laboured than luminous.

Though Goa is captured with pristine picturesqueness, the Ranveer-Anushka relationship in the second-half falters due to a lack of inner conviction. Though the writing is smooth textured and layered, the mellow momentum is forfeited once it's payback time for the con man.

Anushka Sharma's predictable bubbly-on-the-prowl act here often seems selfconscious and repetitive. Could we please see this bundle of energy do something else? And really, her introductory song is more a homage to Ram Gopal Varma's "Rangeela" than a panoramic look-see at Anushaka's character's heartland.

The songs and choreography are more erotic diversions.

Ranveer Singh gets his act together with great care for details. Each step of his con game is charted carefully with the right physique, body language clothes and accessories. Yup, this actor works hard on getting it right and succeeds. If the highlight in "Band Baajaa Baraat" was the sequence where Ranveer's character blurted out his love for Anushka, here too Ranveer gets the love-confession sequence just right.

Here's an interesting actor who matches his enthusiasm level with a compelling quotient of sensitivity .

Fatally, we never know what motivates Ricky Behl. Why does he do what he does? Is he a benign fan of Shah Rukh Khan over-dosing on the "Baazigar" philosophy of fooling women for money?

If the narrative tends to run through a blind alley quite often it also finds its way into a luminous light often enough to make us feel favourably towards the overall products. The locational details and the character-specifications are done with rare care. The three actresses Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma and Dipannati Sharma playing Ricky's three scorned women slip effortlessly into their roles.

As for Anushka she is a fearless actress, not afraid to let her emotions overrule her makeup. At the end of the film when she dresses up as Santa Claus to smooch Ranveer Singh in shopping mall, there isn't that same feeling of breathless exhilaration we felt when Ranveer and Anushka kissed in their previous film together.

As far as con capers go, "Ladies Vs Ricky Behl" moves at an engaging pace long enough to qualify as a rom-com which looks and feels right.

Read More

Bhindi Baazaar Movie Reviews

Director: Ankush Bhatt

Cast: Pavan Malhotra, Kay Kay Menon, Prashant Narayanan, Gautam Sharma and Deepti Naval

Rating: ***

You can take the gangster out of Mumbai, but you really can't take Mumbai out of the gangster genre of cinema. How many films have we seen where young people from the seamier side of Mumbai's notorious underbelly get into the world of crime and other furtive pleasures?

Let's not make a list of the underworld films, recent and remote which "Bhindi Baazaar Inc" echoes. Suffice to say this one too shakes you, sometimes to the core. It is gritty edgy tactile and earthy, filled with actors who look unwashed, unshaven brazen and brash enough to pass off as real gangsters on Mumbai's crowded roads.

Gun's the word. The only language that these people speak is the language of violence. As one of the semi-pivotal characters with bruises and fractures says: "What difference does it make whether it's the public, police or colleagues? I am used to the thrashing." That sense of expected violence at the pit of the stomach runs through the film's underbelly.

"Bhindi Baazaar Inc" serenades a genre which has been done to brutal death in Bollywood. Sex here is for barter and worse. Take it or leave it. In an episode echoing Vishal Bhardwaj's "Maqbool" with vigorous temerity, the ganglord's recruit kills his own mentor and sleeps with the woman that the mentor was lusting after.

Recall the Pankaj Kapoor-Tabu-Irrfan Khan axis in "Maqbool". Shakespeare meets Ram Gopal Varma. You'd immediately see where Ghalib Asab Bopali's 'scream' play in "Bhindi Baazaar" is coming from. Replete with rugged references to the tradition of Mumbai cinema's enduring allegiance to gangsterism, the film moves at an even trot.

Bolstered by hard-hitting images of violence, the narration warms up menacingly towards a heated climax. Bhatt seeks inspiration from the great raconteurs of gangsterism Ram Gopal Varma, for starters.

It isn't originality that gives this work its bearings and resonances. It's the way the familiar congregations of the scruffy and the savage people are packaged and projected that keeps us riveted.

At the helm of the pulsating proceedings are the two pickpocket friends. Prashant Narayanan (excellent) and newcomer Gautam Sharma (confident) remind us of Dev Patel and Ankur Vikal in Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" and Sharman Joshi and Farukh Kabir in "Allah Ka Banday".

While resonantly echoing all these violent predecessors, "Bhindi Baazaar Inc" manages to stand on its own two feet.

Director Ankush Bhatt keeps the blood and fury rolling out in reams of ricocheting images denoting a life lived on the edge of self-destruction. The performances range from the grand (Pavan Malhotra) to the awkward (some of the female actors). The romantic and erotic sequences are clumsy, and some attempts to shock through dialogues and visuals are too blatant.

But the plot finally holds together. The blood-soaked streets, the mean circumstances and the meaner social outcasts all come together in a bracing bloodbath that could be accused of being jaded in theme but not lacking in vitality and vigour.

Read More

Bhindi Baazaar Movie Reviews

Director: Ankush Bhatt

Cast: Pavan Malhotra, Kay Kay Menon, Prashant Narayanan, Gautam Sharma and Deepti Naval

Rating: ***

You can take the gangster out of Mumbai, but you really can't take Mumbai out of the gangster genre of cinema. How many films have we seen where young people from the seamier side of Mumbai's notorious underbelly get into the world of crime and other furtive pleasures?

Let's not make a list of the underworld films, recent and remote which "Bhindi Baazaar Inc" echoes. Suffice to say this one too shakes you, sometimes to the core. It is gritty edgy tactile and earthy, filled with actors who look unwashed, unshaven brazen and brash enough to pass off as real gangsters on Mumbai's crowded roads.

Gun's the word. The only language that these people speak is the language of violence. As one of the semi-pivotal characters with bruises and fractures says: "What difference does it make whether it's the public, police or colleagues? I am used to the thrashing." That sense of expected violence at the pit of the stomach runs through the film's underbelly.

"Bhindi Baazaar Inc" serenades a genre which has been done to brutal death in Bollywood. Sex here is for barter and worse. Take it or leave it. In an episode echoing Vishal Bhardwaj's "Maqbool" with vigorous temerity, the ganglord's recruit kills his own mentor and sleeps with the woman that the mentor was lusting after.

Recall the Pankaj Kapoor-Tabu-Irrfan Khan axis in "Maqbool". Shakespeare meets Ram Gopal Varma. You'd immediately see where Ghalib Asab Bopali's 'scream' play in "Bhindi Baazaar" is coming from. Replete with rugged references to the tradition of Mumbai cinema's enduring allegiance to gangsterism, the film moves at an even trot.

Bolstered by hard-hitting images of violence, the narration warms up menacingly towards a heated climax. Bhatt seeks inspiration from the great raconteurs of gangsterism Ram Gopal Varma, for starters.

It isn't originality that gives this work its bearings and resonances. It's the way the familiar congregations of the scruffy and the savage people are packaged and projected that keeps us riveted.

At the helm of the pulsating proceedings are the two pickpocket friends. Prashant Narayanan (excellent) and newcomer Gautam Sharma (confident) remind us of Dev Patel and Ankur Vikal in Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" and Sharman Joshi and Farukh Kabir in "Allah Ka Banday".

While resonantly echoing all these violent predecessors, "Bhindi Baazaar Inc" manages to stand on its own two feet.

Director Ankush Bhatt keeps the blood and fury rolling out in reams of ricocheting images denoting a life lived on the edge of self-destruction. The performances range from the grand (Pavan Malhotra) to the awkward (some of the female actors). The romantic and erotic sequences are clumsy, and some attempts to shock through dialogues and visuals are too blatant.

But the plot finally holds together. The blood-soaked streets, the mean circumstances and the meaner social outcasts all come together in a bracing bloodbath that could be accused of being jaded in theme but not lacking in vitality and vigour.

Read More

Bheja Fry 2 Movie Review

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Suresh Menon and Amole Gupte

Director: Sagar Ballary

Rating: ***

When "Bheja Fry" was released in 2007, mostly a shot by shot copy of the 1998 French hit "Le Dîner De Cons" (The Dinner Game), no one expected it to be such a big hit. Yet, in the character of Bharat Bhushan, they had created a character people could relate to, so what if the French had done all the hard work behind it.

Four years later, Mr. Bhushan is back to irritate the bad guys and spread his good humoured innocence around. And though it is at least half an hour too long, it still works.

After winning a TV contest, tax-inspector Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak) is invited to be part of a cruise ship. Also on a leisure trip is fraudster Ajit Talwar (Kay Kay Menon) who comes to know of a tax inspector in disguise on the boat out to catch him. He thinks it is Bhushan and tries to kill him only for both him and Bhushan to be stranded on an uninhabited island.

Will Talwar survive Bhushan's antics?

"Bheja Fry 2" does not have the innocent charm of the first part. Mainly because the surprise element of the first is gone and also because unlike in the original, which was a copy, the makers have had to put their thinking cap on. Thus while the original seemed immaculate in its conception, this one jars more than once during it over two hour duration.

The greatest inconsistency is in the camera work, which would go into extreme close up, and suddenly draw back to give a panorama, causing undesired irritation.

Instead of relying on slapstick, the film relies on situational humour. That is indeed a refreshing change for an Indian comedy. However, many humorous possibilities from these situations are simply frittered away, especially on a cruise boat full of pompous, rich people, thus showing poor imagination from the creators.

The metaphor of the original, which was not to judge a man by the way he behaves and instead to look at his heart, has been made. There's nothing to look forward to in this pitting of an irritating but true man versus a suave conman.

Also, this part overshoots its welcome by at least half an hour, with some silly, cliched gags. A tighter editing, to match the length of the original would have evened out a lot of rough edges.

Yet, as popular comedies go in India, it is better than what the audiences in this nation are conned for in the name of comedy with films full of silly, sexist jokes, overdone and badly executed gags and complete lack of situational comedy.

Unwittingly thus, "Bheja Fry 2" becomes a metaphor for what is wrong with popular Indian comedy today, unlike the comedies of the 1960s and 1970s: lack of fresh ideas and creative talents with the sense and timing enough to execute it.

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Bheja Fry 2 Movie Review

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Suresh Menon and Amole Gupte

Director: Sagar Ballary

Rating: ***

When "Bheja Fry" was released in 2007, mostly a shot by shot copy of the 1998 French hit "Le Dîner De Cons" (The Dinner Game), no one expected it to be such a big hit. Yet, in the character of Bharat Bhushan, they had created a character people could relate to, so what if the French had done all the hard work behind it.

Four years later, Mr. Bhushan is back to irritate the bad guys and spread his good humoured innocence around. And though it is at least half an hour too long, it still works.

After winning a TV contest, tax-inspector Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak) is invited to be part of a cruise ship. Also on a leisure trip is fraudster Ajit Talwar (Kay Kay Menon) who comes to know of a tax inspector in disguise on the boat out to catch him. He thinks it is Bhushan and tries to kill him only for both him and Bhushan to be stranded on an uninhabited island.

Will Talwar survive Bhushan's antics?

"Bheja Fry 2" does not have the innocent charm of the first part. Mainly because the surprise element of the first is gone and also because unlike in the original, which was a copy, the makers have had to put their thinking cap on. Thus while the original seemed immaculate in its conception, this one jars more than once during it over two hour duration.

The greatest inconsistency is in the camera work, which would go into extreme close up, and suddenly draw back to give a panorama, causing undesired irritation.

Instead of relying on slapstick, the film relies on situational humour. That is indeed a refreshing change for an Indian comedy. However, many humorous possibilities from these situations are simply frittered away, especially on a cruise boat full of pompous, rich people, thus showing poor imagination from the creators.

The metaphor of the original, which was not to judge a man by the way he behaves and instead to look at his heart, has been made. There's nothing to look forward to in this pitting of an irritating but true man versus a suave conman.

Also, this part overshoots its welcome by at least half an hour, with some silly, cliched gags. A tighter editing, to match the length of the original would have evened out a lot of rough edges.

Yet, as popular comedies go in India, it is better than what the audiences in this nation are conned for in the name of comedy with films full of silly, sexist jokes, overdone and badly executed gags and complete lack of situational comedy.

Unwittingly thus, "Bheja Fry 2" becomes a metaphor for what is wrong with popular Indian comedy today, unlike the comedies of the 1960s and 1970s: lack of fresh ideas and creative talents with the sense and timing enough to execute it.

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Shaitan rocks the weekend crowd

The movie was directed by a big name in the movie industry Bejoy Nambiar. The film was produced by Hindi Cinema. The characters in the movie are a group of notorious gangs who engage in all sorts of amoral behaviour. They take to hard drugs and habitual drinking. As a result of their drunken character they drive recklessly through the streets in Mumbai. These wayward boys came from rich background, as result of their bad behaviour they were no longer accepted by their families.

The reckless driving through Mumbai resulted to the deaths of two people whom they crushed in a ghastly motor accident. Because of the seriousness of the case the only option that was left for them was to source money to closes the case. But getting the money to close the case was a big problem of its own as none of them would summon the courage to visit their parents and relations for financial assistance. To source the money they started plotting for it.

One of them was Amy a lady whose real name is Kalki Koechlin suggested to others that they fake her kidnapping so that some ransom can be demanded from her parents to make up the money to close the case. Unfortunately their plan turned out negatively against them and resulted their getting deeper into crime.

While the movie lasted it was interested and attention capturing. The movie was also more interested in the way flashbacks and narrative devices were inserted to prevent the movie watchers from predicting what is going to be the outcome of the next stage.

The movie featured Rajeev khandelwal, Koechlin Kalki, Shiv Pandit, Kulhari Kirti, Deviaya Gulshan as well as Neil Bhoopalam.

There are many interesting sequences in the movie but the most exciting among them was the shoot outs. The narratives in the movie were repeatedly punctured with what Kalki thought of her mother who serves no other purpose than to explain reasons for her criminal behaviour and perhaps attract sympathy and forgiveness from the film watchers.

One of the interesting tracks in the movie was the place a committed police officer was wounded in the course of his duty even when his dedication to duty is causing disaffection in his marriage. It can be said that the hero of this film is this police officer who passed through lots of ordeals like watching his wife pack out of their matrimonial homes, and such other instances where he spurs his auto driver into action.

The soundtrack of the film is superb and the credit for this goes to the composers of the movie. The five principal characters in the movie are three boys and two girls. The boys have better performance than the girls.

In the whole the film could not pass completely the message it intended to send across. There are some big loopholes here and there. As a first action by the director the movie gets my pass mark. It is entertaining and interesting. It compare favorably with other films of similar themes.

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Shaitan rocks the weekend crowd

The movie was directed by a big name in the movie industry Bejoy Nambiar. The film was produced by Hindi Cinema. The characters in the movie are a group of notorious gangs who engage in all sorts of amoral behaviour. They take to hard drugs and habitual drinking. As a result of their drunken character they drive recklessly through the streets in Mumbai. These wayward boys came from rich background, as result of their bad behaviour they were no longer accepted by their families.

The reckless driving through Mumbai resulted to the deaths of two people whom they crushed in a ghastly motor accident. Because of the seriousness of the case the only option that was left for them was to source money to closes the case. But getting the money to close the case was a big problem of its own as none of them would summon the courage to visit their parents and relations for financial assistance. To source the money they started plotting for it.

One of them was Amy a lady whose real name is Kalki Koechlin suggested to others that they fake her kidnapping so that some ransom can be demanded from her parents to make up the money to close the case. Unfortunately their plan turned out negatively against them and resulted their getting deeper into crime.

While the movie lasted it was interested and attention capturing. The movie was also more interested in the way flashbacks and narrative devices were inserted to prevent the movie watchers from predicting what is going to be the outcome of the next stage.

The movie featured Rajeev khandelwal, Koechlin Kalki, Shiv Pandit, Kulhari Kirti, Deviaya Gulshan as well as Neil Bhoopalam.

There are many interesting sequences in the movie but the most exciting among them was the shoot outs. The narratives in the movie were repeatedly punctured with what Kalki thought of her mother who serves no other purpose than to explain reasons for her criminal behaviour and perhaps attract sympathy and forgiveness from the film watchers.

One of the interesting tracks in the movie was the place a committed police officer was wounded in the course of his duty even when his dedication to duty is causing disaffection in his marriage. It can be said that the hero of this film is this police officer who passed through lots of ordeals like watching his wife pack out of their matrimonial homes, and such other instances where he spurs his auto driver into action.

The soundtrack of the film is superb and the credit for this goes to the composers of the movie. The five principal characters in the movie are three boys and two girls. The boys have better performance than the girls.

In the whole the film could not pass completely the message it intended to send across. There are some big loopholes here and there. As a first action by the director the movie gets my pass mark. It is entertaining and interesting. It compare favorably with other films of similar themes.

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Murder 2

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Murder 2

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Double Dhamaal Photos

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Double Dhamaal Photos

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Yeh Saali Zindagi Movie Review

Film: Yeh Saali Zindagi

Starring: Arunoday Singh,Chitrangda Singh,Irrfan Khan,Aditi

Director: Sudhir Mishra

Producer: Prakash Jha

Banner: Cine Raas Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Prakash Jha Produ

Music: Nishat Khan

Rating: 3/5

Director Sudhir Mishra’s latest offering is Yeh Saali Zindagi. It revolves around love, betrayal, corrupt cops and politicians, money laundering, lots of Smooches and all other things. The film sees like love stories happening but eventually turns out to be a thriller. The gorgeous Chitrangada singh is back in this film after working with the director last in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

Story

The story goes like this; Arun played by Irrfan Khan is in love with Priti played by Chitrangada, who in turn is in love with an other guy Shyam played by Vipul gupta, who is about to get married to a powerful minister’s daughter. Kuldeep played by Arunodhay is released from jail and he is on his last job as he is afraid of his wife Shanti played by Aditi rao parting with him if he doesn’t change. The last job of his is to release Bade, his friend in jail. In order to do this he Kidnap’s Shyam and Priti assuming that the latter is former’s fiancée and demands hefty ransom from the mentioned Minister. This Kidnap results in Arun, the usual Bollywood hero type trying to help Priti and the drama continues.

Plus points

The film moves at a quick pace even though it is too long, thanks to the camera man [Sachin Kumar Krishnan] and background score [Nishat Khan and Abhishek Ray]. The National capital is captured in its real look. The dialogues of the film written by Mishra and Manu Rishi are wacky which now, a part and parcel of every Bollywood film, remember No one Killed Jessica! Both the writers should be appreciated as dialogues match the Scenario. The films cast works out pretty well with Irrfan and Saurabh Shukla [Irrfan’s boss in the film] taking the limelight. The climax was handled pretty well.

Minus points

It would be difficult for an average viewer to get glued to the story as it has many sub-plots. Mishra should have made the screenplay simple if not reducing the films length. Other scenes apart from romance and thrill are not handled well by the director, wonder why? Family audience might have reservations considering too much foul language and cuss words used in the film.

Final verdict

We recommend you to have a nice popcorn weekend with Yeh Saali Zindagi. It Seems like February too started well in Bollywood.

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