There’s no dum in the story. It’s a remix of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Chak De, both Yash Raj films. There are also enough references to the other hits from their banner, as is customary in all their films.

Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee) is a cricketer who can hit six sixes in an over. Gary Sobers, Ravi Shastri and Yuvraj Singh be damned. She works in a local theatre group but dreams of donning the India colours. Her argument is simple; if Indira Gandhi could run the nation, Kiran Bedi tame prisoners in Tihar jail and Sunita Williams land on the moon, why cannot she play cricket for the Indian team. Good question!

So to make her dream come true she turns into Veer Pratap Singh, complete with a moustache and a beard to enter the selection trials for a local club. Here she runs into (Rohan) Shahid Kapur, who has specially come down from England to help his dad’s team, which has been consistently losing, get the winning edge. Dad and Mom are not on talking terms. Seems like she wanted to settle in England and he in India. So son spends most time in England

Rohan selects Veer Pratap Singh blissfully unaware that he is a girl, falls in love with Veera, thinking she is Veer’s sister, realizes his folly during the all-important match, asks her to sit out, and then, when they are nine wickets down and on the verge of losing the match to a Pakistan team, requests her to pad up. No prizes for guessing which team wins.

Wanted:

But Salman Khan fans need not fear, WANTED is all about the Khan. Here he is on a killing spree. One after the other, bad guys get bumped off, either to a bullet or to his fist. Last week BAABARR, did the killing, this week it is Radhe (Salman Khan) who works for moneybhai (meaning, he kills for money). And he kills with passionate glee!

There’s also Gani bhai, Golden and Datta Pawle who do the killing. They are hardcore underworld characters who feed the cops and bleed the city. A bad cop is thrown in for good measure in the form of Inspector Talpade (Mahesh Manjrekar). Talpade decides which girl he wants to size up and does so in public! Of course there is also Ayesha Takia. Poor girl, she doesn’t know if she is coming or going. I mean there are no links to her scenes and no meaning to her dialogues either. From a call centre where she works, she is either going to meet Radhe or to her aerobic classes. She has a kid brother who takes the 8pm local (empty). It is not clear whether he is going home or coming home!

There are songs, which bamboozle you just like the bullets and it is only in the last 10 minutes that there is some semblance of sense. One performance that will ease the pain is that of Prakash Raj who plays the international Don Gani Bhai. This guy is superb. Manjrekar, too, as the bad cop, steals the show.

As for the story, you are still trying to figure that one out even after the movie is over.

aagey se right

With a title like this, AAGE SE RIGHT, you expected to see typical Mumbai humour based on the oft-repeated direction given to a simple question asked by anyone looking for the right address or location.

However, this is a story of a lost gun and a police officer from a village who reports for duty in Mumbai. His service revolver is stolen by three teenagers out to have some fun. What follows next is Dinkar Wagmahre’s (Shreyas Talpade) hunt for his service revolver. Director Indrajit Nattoji packs in too many instances and characters and somewhere along the line loses the plot.

Apart from Shreyas there is Kay Kay Menon (Janubhai) who is sent on a mission to terrorise Mumbai with bombings. However, on the first day itself, after landing in the city he is reformed, falling in love with a bar dancer, Pearl (Shenaz Treasuryvala). His big boss is not happy. He flies down himself to set the plan in motion.

There is also Raghav (Vijay Maurya) who houses Janubhai when he comes to India. With Janubhai, he too has a change of heart and ventures into the catering business. There is Mahie Gill as a TV reporter who always reaches the scene of action in time. But much of the action is centred around Dinkar and his search for his pistol.

Though funny in parts, the film fails to hold your imagination for long. It is wild and whacky no doubt but the story is not sustained, thanks to the multiple characters.

Shreyas, as usual, is in his elements. Seconding him in the acting department is Vijay Maurya. The rest, I feel, are wasted. Kay Kay and Mahie are such fine actors that the roles don’t do justice to their talent.

This movie had a lot of potential but a weak script has let it down.

Vishal Bhardwaj has lined himself up for some serious awards this coming year. Also, with KAMINEY, he has given Shahid Kapur his best role till date. I dare say it will be a long time, if ever, before Shahid gets to display himself as a complete actor again. There’s magic in the film, which hooks you from the beginning. The editing is razor sharp, the drama is top class, the performances super duper and the background score ‘with it’. As for the screenplay, one word: unbelievable. Dhan te nan is already the anthem of the film.

In short, KAMINEY is your typical Bollywood masala film, but with keeping the audience intelligence in mind. What Bhardwaj has smartly done is use the formula of the films of old and dress it up in his own inimitable way. Even when the end unwraps itself, although you might have seen it a zillion times before, it has a standing of its own. You cannot help but applaud when the film ends.

The movie is about Guddu and Charlie (Shahid Kapur in a double role), both brothers who have not met in many years. While Guddu is the quiet, shy type, Charlie is the rough, tough guy who moves where there is trouble. When trouble strikes, both brothers land in the wrong hands. The sober guy with the drug mafia and Charlie with Bhope Bhau for meddling with his sister. From there on, the movie gallops to a deafening pace, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

There’s action, emotion, drama, suspense, political aspirations, drug cartel all linked with the judwa bhai tale. Even when there is a flashback, it’s not to bore, but to add value. Each scene is a treat. As one scene leads to another, Bhardwaj shows his finesse in story telling. No spoon-feeding the audience. There are some conclusions you have to draw, and almost all scenes are gems. One that stands out is when Bhope Bhau guns down Mikhail in Charlie’s house. The mock gunplay before the lethal bullet explodes is chilling. Or the scene when Charlie, after seeing the body of his friend Mikhail, brought by his bookie brothers, empties the guitar case full of cocaine in the fire, or even the scene when the twin brothers Guddu and Charlie fight for the ‘loot’. The one where Guddu confronts Sweety on the way to their honeymoon is poignant, the full impact of which hits you in the end. Or for that matter, the scene where Sweety discloses her real identity to Guddu.

Shahid Kapur in a double role has done justice to both the characters. The simple lad Guddu who works for an NGO, as well as a rookie bookie who plans to hit the jackpot. Both contrasting roles, which gives him enough room to showcase his lean and mean side as well as the soft, gooey side.

Priyanka Chopra as Sweety Bhope the kid sister of a goon with politician aspirations surprises with her maturity and body language. She is in complete sync with what Bhardwaj wants. Amol Gupte as Sunil Shekhar Bhope a local goon with aspirations for a ticket to parliament is top class. His costume, lingo and cronies are spot on. Ditto his love for Mumbai and hate for North Indians!

Shiv Subrahmanyam (Lobo) and Hrishikesh Joshi (Lele), corrupt officials from the narcotics cell and Chandan Roy Sanyal (Mikhail), brother of the bookies and Charlie’s best friend all shine in their respective roles.

If it is not going over the top, KAMINEY can be called the SHOLAY of our time, Sweety Bhope, Basanti while Shahid’s Guddu and Charlie as Jai and Veeru.

Statutory warning: If you watch it once, you will want to watch it again!

love aaj kal movie

LOVE AAJ KAL is JAB WE MET without the intensity of Geet. However, here you have the confused, so-called ‘me stud man’ image of Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif Ali Khan), which takes a beating and comes out fighting to salvage his love, or whatever it is that is left of it. So Jai who hogs the best dialogues and even screen space when he is required to listen takes Geet’s place convincingly.

One scene is when Meera (Deepika Padukone) is getting married and asks her friends to call Jai (who also is at the reception) to meet her. Obviously, she has something to say, but what happens is Jai steals the show with his ‘Amitabh-like’ lines while you are left wondering what is it that Meera wanted to tell him. Point to note Imtiaz.

Imtiaz Ali has spun a two-layered tale of love and has Saif Ali Khan portraying love in today’s time (Aaj) and love two decades ago (Kal). In both roles, Saif is super convincing. Love seems to be the flavour for Imtiaz and he handles the subject with a degree of confidence that has now become his trademark.

Jai and Meera meet and fall in love in London. After two years of courtship, Meera’s archaeological background takes her to India while Jai has his dreams to work on a project in San Francisco. They decide to break-up and even have a ‘break-up party’. How cool is that. Their meeting, falling in love, tender moments and even the break-up is capsuled well by Imtiaz. But somewhere deep down, both know that they can never be separated. For Jai, break-up means he is now ready to date more girls, while for Meera it is work and the prospect of meeting new men. Jai is the super-cool dude who does not believe in the philosophy of love. Not for him is the Romeo-Juliet kind of romance. This is Love Aaj.

Rishi Kapoor, who owns the restaurant where the ‘break-up’ party is held, reminisces of his love and how he wooed his girl to Jai. Patiently following her cycle rickshaw in the by-lanes of Delhi and even going to Calcutta to track her down after she had moved away. Saif Ali Khan plays the younger, vulnerable, and unsure in love Rishi. That was Love Kal.

In both tales, Imtiaz weaves a pattern to display that whatever era you may have been in, Love has a singular momentum and you only love once. Both love stories are unraveled together and as they head to the climax, Imtiaz has you firmly in his grip.

The first half moves fast but you just get the feeling that the second half could have been tighter. It drags and you wonder why Imtiaz is letting his grip off the proceedings.

Deepika comes out shining. Put her in the hands of a good director and she can do wonders. Imtiaz coaxes out a good performance from her. But believe me; this girl can do much, much better. She stands up to the much-experienced Saif Ali Khan in the lighter moments as well as the more intense ones. If she makes the right choices, she will be an actress to watch out for.

Saif Ali Khan makes a smooth transition from actor to producer. He may not have promoted his film with the force of a Ghajini, but he managed to create just the right kind of hype. Maybe, if Team India had to progress further in the recently concluded T-20 World Cup, the hype would have gotten bigger. Saif has shown a sharp business eye looking into every aspect, including the music by Pritam.

Love knows no language. Besides, it cuts through people from all age. Aaj, Kal and what have you. It is neat, clean and full of romance. This one is for ”The mango people. The Aam Junta”, as Saif’s Jai says in one of his dialogues. Go for it.

CHOWRASTA is an interesting flick. It’s like a well-written novel you read on a lazy afternoon, one you do not wish to put down until you reach the last page. The build-up of the assortment of characters is subtle and their story interestingly narrated. Victor Bannerjee, the protagonist, if you may call him so, begins the narration, which then moves into sizing up every character. There’s a couple who have eloped who are on their honeymoon in Darjeeling; there’s a wife, long divorced, a struggling Bollywood actress, who surfaces from Mumbai to meet her ex-husband; there’s a guy fleeing from himself, caught unwittingly with unscrupulous characters and of course, there’s Victor Banerjee who is lamenting the loss of his wife.

Every tale connects with you. Take for instance the story of Sunny and his Bengali girlfriend who have eloped because her father will not agree to a Punjabi son-in-law. Their fresh romance, in-your-face exhibition of love, painful tiffs and then making-up is something any one will connect to. Both the actors who play the part are rock solid. Then there’s Atul Kulkarni who is afraid of where he is headed. You could say Atul has come of age with the portrayal of Kenny, the rough dude with a heart of gold. A very complex character, indeed.

Rupa Ganguly as the failed Bollywood actress who surfaces in Darjeeling after 12 years with her kid is a delight. Her constant bickering with her ‘typical Bengali’ ex-husband makes for interesting viewing. So also, her exploits with her many male friends, one of whom she brings along to Darjeeling.

Then there’s Victor Banerjee himself and his struggle with self, wanting to go to where his wife is.

Go for it. You won’t be disappointed.

It has been an extremely bold venture by this Sukra Arts produced movie directed and written by one V V Kumar. PAL PAL DIL KE SSAAT lacks the basic ethics of filmmaking - that of having a script or screenplay. Random shots, random scenes, random dialogues are all what you see. Random acting too!

But it was equally bold and graceful of IMAX Adlabs (now Big Cinemas), Wadala, to screen the movie, albeit 10 minutes late. Reason being I was the only one in the multiplex. After making sure I wanted to see the film, they started the show. I have been to multiplexes that have refused to screen shows because they wanted a minimum of six tickets sold. RAFOO CHAKKAR is the film of late, which I could not see because it did not meet the required quorum!

or the record, there’s Vinod Kambli and Ajay Jadeja in this film. From the looks of the styling, the movie looks dated and that perhaps explains the reason for Mahie Gill’s presence. Thankfully for her, this was not her first release. DEV D has already set a benchmark for her talent, followed by GULAAL.

The background score hammers incessantly making you immune to the melody (or the lack of it). The story is as far-fetched as the characters and the ultimate climax is the understanding of how the Tsunami of 2004 came about. At least that is what the makers are driving at. There are also two parallel stories running across, one of Kamal Haasan the sting operator (a fearless TV reporter) and another of Kamal Haasan the kung fu expert from Japan who is out to avenge his student’s death. Add eight more Kamal Haasan’s, and you get the drift of the title of the film!

The only actor working hard is Kamal Haasan who has to sit through various sittings of makeovers. The movie sometimes, borders on insanity. In the midst of a very intense scene, there’s suddenly a PJ. You wonder what the intention of the director was – comedy or action? The action scenes too get robotic after a while, with another Kamal Haasan, the villain, jumping and flying around, reminding one of Arnie in TERMINATOR.

As for the story, everyone is after a vial, which contains a deadly virus. The vial surprisingly reaches India, Tamil Nadu to be precise, from an American laboratory. And following it for its safekeeping is scientist Kamal Haasan. The rest of the plot is of every Kamal Haasan crossing paths, some in search of the vial while others thrown in for comic relief.

In between all this, there’s also Mallika Sherawat and Asin. Asin comes in twice; the first time is eight hundred years before, somewhere in the 1200s. She appears again eight hundred years later. No, she is no relative of the previous Asin. And no one found it necessary to explain the connection between the two.

Ram Gopal Varma buried himself in his self-glorification called, ‘RGV Ki Aag’. He has found a serious contender in Kamal Haasan.