Film Review: GORI TERE PYAAR MEIN

Gori Tere Pyaar Mein

I wish the film had been crisper with less or no songs and a tight edit

Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Nizhalgal Ravi
Director: Punit Malhotra

Venkat and I were keen to see this movie and could only go this Thursday – a week after its release. We both enjoyed the film.

THE STORY

Sriram Venkat (Imran Khan) is a happy-go-lucky architect who works for his father. The Tam-Bram family lives in Bangalore. Sriram’s father is quite tired of asking him to be more responsible. That’s when the parents decide to get him married. They arrange a match with Vasudha (Shraddha Kapoor). Vasudha tells him in private that she is in love with someone else and requests Sriram to reject her. He in turn tells her to talk to her parents as he does not want to say ‘no’ to the alliance and earn his father’s wrath. The couple gets engaged. In flashback, Sriram talks to Vasudha about his broken relationship with Diya (Kareena Kapoor). Sriram’s perception changes as he talks more and more about Diya. And then he decides to run away from his own wedding…..

MY PERCEPTION

As I have mentioned in other film reviews, Imran Khan can act at times. Luckily, this is one of those films. He has done a very good job of playing the character of a guy who lives on the surface who later moves on to discover himself. Nice one, Imran!

Kareena Kapoor looks gorgeous in her role as Diya and she has also acted very well. There was a time a few years ago when I used to dread watching her films. She has come a long long way. Great work, Kareena!

Shraddha Kapoor’s role is quite small and does not have much scope. She was okay with what there was.

The story is good and the lack of violence was what I liked most about the film. Despite there being opportunities for a few fight sequences, the movie makers have steered clear of them. I am so glad for one. The concept is good and quite forward thinking. But I wish the film had been crisper with less or no songs and a tight edit. That would have kept the audience hooked. And that is probably the reason why the theatres did not run full despite the film being good.

A couple of bloopers that I could not help but notice as I am a Tam-Bram myself – a Tamil bride does not dress in a silk full skirt and synthetic half sari for her wedding. The bridegroom gets all set for Kasi Yaathirai (a trip to Kasi to give up the life of a family man) wearing his slippers – not barefoot like Imran. As he decides to go away, the bride’s father requests him to return promising a beautiful wife in the form of his own daughter. The older guy washes the groom’s feet AFTER he has been persuaded to cancel his trip to Kasi. And NOBODY eggs the bridegroom on to run away. The scene appeared quite stupid to me.

VERDICT: It’s worth a see definitely, especially if you like romance.

RANKING: ***Smart

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Film Review: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA!

The dialogues were sharp, smart and interesting!

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonali Bendre Behl, Mahesh Manjrekar, Bala Manian
Director: Milan Luthria
Writer: Rajat Arora

I have not seen the first one starring Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi as I am not too keen on action films. As this time Akshay Kumar had promised that ‘it is personal’ and after the Chennai Express fiasco, I decided ‘what the hell!’ and went to see the movie along with Venkat and Vini on August 15 itself. I am glad that I did!

THE STORY

Set in the 1990s, Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) is a ruthless gangster who would do just anything to have his way, whether for money or women. Shoaib meets Aslam, a street smart kid and takes him under his wing. Twelve years later, Shoaib, who had been in the Middle East, returns to Bombay to kill his rival Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar). Aslam (Imran Khan) is now a young man who is totally loyal to Shoaib. Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) has recently moved to Bombay from Kashmir and is trying to become a film heroine. She meets Aslam and soon the two are attracted to each other. In the meanwhile, Jasmine meets Shoaib and he falls for her innocence. She gets a chance as heroine in a film that Shoaib backs. Watch the film to see who gets Jasmine – Shoaib or Aslam.

MY PERCEPTION

I am a sucker for romance and so the film worked for me. The best thing about the film were the dialogues. They were sharp, smart and interesting. Congratulations to Rajat Arora for the same. I so wished that my grasp of Hindi was better than what it is so that I could have appreciated it better. I will probably catch the film again on TV just for that.

The music was good and so were the songs. I especially enjoyed the sequence, “Tayeb Ali Pyar ka Dushman…” The scene was also very well made.

Akshay Kumar has been improving with age. That is probably because he is choosing good roles. I have seen a consistent improvement with Oh My God!, Special 26 and now Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara! In this film, the actor plays the negative role of a cold-blooded gangster. And he has enacted the part perfectly – with a chilling smile on his face and cold-blooded to the hilt. Good one, Akshay Kumar!

Sonakshi Sinha is excellent as Jasmine. She has a very expressive face and she has used it well to portray different emotions. Her dialogue delivery is just perfect.

Imran Khan! Well, I am never confident that the actor will perform in every film. He was superb in Jaane Tu… Yaa Jaane Na, Meri Brother Ki Dulhan, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Delhi Belly and I Hate Luv Storys. In contrast, Imran Khan was terrible in Luck, Kidnap, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola  and Break ke Baad.

But Imran Khan was simply superb in this movie as Aslam, Shoaib’s protégée. He has a chunky role and he has delivered. Kudos! Hope to see more of great acting from Imran Khan in the future.

I have to mention here that the role of Vardhan was played by Bala Manian who is my maternal uncle. He is my mother’s youngest brother. He also goes by the screen name of R. Balasubramanian (Monsoon Shootout – Click here to read review of the film). Balu, as we call him, has been acting since many years and has acted in Tamil and Hindi films as well as in TV serials. He was very good as Vardhan in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara! Even if it was just the one scene, he has a few dialogues in it. Congratulations Balu!

Two other really good things were that the film was not too long and the fight sequences were also relatively short.  

VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

RATING: ***1/2 (Better than smart)

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super

Film Review: EK MAIN AUR EKK TU

Has Bollywood finally arrived!!!!!!!!!! A simple, short film with not too many songs

Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah, Ram Kapoor
Director: Shakun Batra

I know it’s been a while since I wrote film reviews. While I could not write a review for Rockstar as I left for Chennai some hours later, I did not feel like talking about Don 2 and Agneepath as the violence in both films almost did me in.

Seeing the promos for Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu had put me off watching the film totally. My husband was not keen either. But I noticed that Mumbai Mirror had given it four stars. I did not read the review as I did not want to know the story, etc. I waited the week out for Vini to be free to watch it with me today. Am I glad I went!

THE STORY: Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is the only child of his parents (Boman Irani & Ratna Pathak Shah). He has led a repressed life from childhood and his life has been chalked out completely by his parents. Rahul has accepted his way of life without fighting it. He lives in Las Vegas while working for a big firm. Unfortunately for him, he loses his job due to recession. But Rahul is unable to admit the fact to his parents who are actually visiting with him at that point. He pretends that everything is hunky dory until they leave. Soon after, he decides to go to a psychiatrist and his path crosses with Riana’s (Kareena Kapoor). Almost 27 to his 25, Riana has a tremendous impact on Rahul’s life. She is the exact opposite of what he is. And thus begins the romance…..

MY PERCEPTION: The film is simply superb with just two songs that do not distract you away from the script. Do not go by the promos. They don’t give you a clue about how the film actually is. And better still, the film runs for just about an hour and 40 minutes. Can you believe that?

I just loved the story and was very happy with the ending. It is not just one more romance from Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwvala. Ok, I just realized my mistake. I did not know that Ronnie Screwvala was one of the producers. I would have watched the film without any hesitation if I had. And I also need to congratulate debut director Shakun Batra. Way to go, man!

I am never sure whether Imran Khan is a good actor or bad. I suppose he is both depending on his director. Well, the actor did very well in this film. Kudos!

Kareena Kapoor was also excellent in her role as Riana. Keep up the good work, Kareena.

Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah as Imran’s abominable parents did great work of their roles.

VERDICT: A fun watch with an unexpected but perfect ending. I would say a must watch if you like light films.

RATING: **** Snazzy

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Just giving a brief verdict on the other films that I watched but did not write about…

ROCKSTAR ***** Super
Ranbir Kapoor rocked as the hero. I would go so far as to say that Ranbir has proved that he is the best in all four generations of the Kapoor Khaandaan. The music was amazing and the editing simply superb. AR Rahman deserved all the awards in the world for this one. I am proud to be walking the earth in the same times at this gentleman. Mohit Chauhan’s voice is liquid gold.  Need I say more?

DON 2 ** Shaky
The one question that I wanted to ask SRK after watching this one was “why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri da?” I am amazed that Farhan Akhtar made this film. Over and above that, SRK received the Zee Critics Award for Best Actor for his performance in this film. Wonder how much he paid for that one? Mr. Khan, please take a sabbatical of may be 2-3 years and come back to filmdom with a fresh outlook. Happy holidays!

AGNEEPATH **** Snazzy
I still did not want to write a review. Hrithik Roshan proved yet again what an excellent actor he is. Sanjay Dutt was a class apart. I don’t think I have ever seen Rishi Kapoor play a negative role. He was simply superb! But the first prize I will give to Kanika Tiwari who played Hrithik’s sister. She was so cute and acted so well, despite talking very less. As you can see, I have not mentioned Priyanka Chopra – well, she is not worth a mention here.

Film Review: MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN

A special congratulations to Ritesh Soni for editing the film so well!


Cast: Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar, Tara D’Souza
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar

Having seen the attractive promos, we decided to go to the film on Day One of its release. The theatre was packed, of course. Thanks to the manager Mr. Rakesh at Cinemax Sion, we managed to get tickets for the 10 pm show on Friday.

THE STORY: Luv (Ali Zafar) lives in London and has been having an affair with Piali (Tara D’Souza) since five years. The two of them break up after a quarrel and Luv decides that he wants to get married to a girl from India. He calls up his brother Kush (Imran Khan) who works as an assistant director in Bollywood. Luv persuades Kush to find him a bride and that’s how Kush lands up looking for ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’. After running through a number of suitable girls, he hones in on Dimple (Katrina Kaif) and feels she is the best for his brother. Luv and Dimple meet over skype and approve of each other. Wedding preparations happen in a frenzy and Kush and Dimple end up spending a lot of time with each other getting things organised. And then… the two of them realize that they are in love. Watch the film to see the obvious ending.

MY PERCEPTION: The film was a fun-watch from beginning till end. I love romances and Yash Raj Films are famous for the same, even though some of their films bombed at the box office and were painful to watch. This one was bang-on with good direction and better editing.

Imran Khan was very good in his role as Kush and I hope this will be a continuing trend, as I feel the actor keeps sliding back to bad acting sometimes. Congrats!

Ali Zafar was excellent. I thought he was very good in his Bollywood debut, Tere Bin Laden. He was even better in this one with his sharply honed acting skills. Kudos!

Hmm… Katrina Kaif! Well, the young lady has come a long, long way. She was simply amazing. She’s lovely, sexy and now, she can act too and very well at that. It was her film throughout even though the guys were good.

The music by Sohail Sen was catchy and fitted well with the film. The songs were good and my favourite was Naache re naache Madhubala. I heard on Star News that the song was not choreographed. It was very nice and Katrina has proved that if she can do a Sheila ki jawani, she can be equally good at dancing to Madhubala too. Simply loved it!

The story was cute and the film was well-directed both thanks to Ali Abbas Zafar.  A special congratulations to Ritesh Soni for editing the film so well! It was a tight fit running for 2 hours and 20 minutes and kept the audience entertained throughout with absolutely no excesses.

VERDICT: A fun-watch romance, just my cup of tea!

RATING: **** Snazzy

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Film Review: BREAK KE BAAD

Cast: Imran Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shahana Goswami, Sharmila Tagore, Navin Nischol, Lilette Dubey, Yudhishtir Urs
Director: Danish Aslam

I managed to catch the film a few days after its release as Vinitha was busy with her MBA exams and no one else at home wanted to see it with me.

I know the film had not had great reviews, but so wanted to see Deepika and Imran as I had loved both their earlier films – Love Aaj Kal & I Hate Luv Storys.

Story: Abhay (Imran Khan) and Aaliya (Deepika Padukone) have known each other since childhood. He is a steady influence in her life while her parents’ marriage breaks up. Aaliya grows up into a feisty young woman. Abhay has only one thing to look forward in life – Aaliya. His world revolves around Aaliya and he is not interested in anything or anyone else. He works as a Vice President at his father’s (Navin Nischol) old theatre by default and does not seem to have any other ambition. Aaliya begins to feel smothered by his incessant and focused love for her and begins to rear at the bit. She insists on a break and moves to Australia to study for a year. Watch the film to see what happens when Abhay follows her there within a few months.

My Perception: Don’t really know what to say about the film. I went to see it also because I saw that Kunal Kohli was connected to it. I think he just paid the bills and kept away from the production. I can’t see any of his influence here. Hum Tum & Fanaa were a class apart.

Deepika Padukone – I would like to hope and believe that the lovely actress has way more range than what characters she has been playing in the last few films of hers. She is modern, she drinks, she laughs, she is aggressive, she wants her space…. Why should the characters she play be so stereotypical? Love Aaj Kal and Karthik Calling Karthik had her playing a very similar profile. I don’t know whether Deepika was okay doing the same rote over and over but I got pretty bored.

Imran Khan – I expected way better after seeing him in I Hate Luv Storys and I was extremely disappointed. He constantly had the expression of a puppy dog that had been kicked hard. Come on, the role could have been played much better and with more range. I do agree that there were a scene or two where he was cheerful. But that was a rarity.

You see what I mean!

And the dialogues – ohmygod! I thought they were sharp to begin with. But the actors kept repeating a number of things over and over again. Especially the one about “break ke baad” – why the same set of words that ran for a few minutes at a time had to be mouthed by the hero and heroine at least four times? The mind boggles! It is like someone using a set of keywords over and over again on content on the internet to come up on google search. Ridiculous! Maybe the scriptwriter had nothing else to say. Or maybe the editor went to sleep on his job.

Lilette Dubey has far more potential. What was she doing in the film mouthing dialogues similar to those by Aruna Irani in Dil To Pagal Hai? I was amazed. Can’t an intelligent actress have had a say in what she needed to utter on screen? It is not as if she played the role of an idiot.

Sharmila Tagore, Navin Nischol and Shahana Goswami did alright. Shahana has way better potential but the director obviously could not tap it.

Of all the actors, the best award goes to Yudhisthir Urs for playing the most natural role in the film perfectly. I think that was more to the actor’s smartness and luck than anything to do with the director.

Verdict: The film is out of the theatres. If you have not seen it, you have saved hard-earned money. If you have too much time, you can always catch it soon on TV. That day is not very far away.

Rating: **

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Film Review: I HATE LUV STORYS

Cast: Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Samir Soni, Sammir Dattani, Kavin Dave, Khusboo Shroff, Bruna Abdullah, Ketki Dave, Anju Mahendru, Shireesh Sharma, Aseem Tiwari

Writer & Director: Punit Malhotra

The Story: Jay’s (Imran Khan) parents are separated and live in Long Island. He has left home to pursue his dreams of becoming a Bollywood director. While he hates love stories, he works for Veer (Samir Soni), the most successful director of romantic films so as to have the experience on his CV. Simran (Sonam Kapoor) is an art director who believes that romance is the only way to live. She goes to work on Veer’s latest film and Jay becomes her assistant. Thus begins the chemistry between the opposite poles. While Simran is engaged to Raj (Sammir Dattani), the man of her dreams, DDLJ-style, she slowly but surely begins to fall for bad-boy Jay who befriends her. Jay is your typical Casanova who just wants to have fun. Simran and Raj are quite serious about their love life, even to the point of colour-coding their clothes. While Raj meets her every day with a white flower, he does not even know enough about Simran to realise that she hates white. Simran falls in love with Jay, but he does not believe in love. Will Ms. Romance get together with Mr. Romance or Mr. Bad-guy forms the rest of the story.

Our Perception: While the end is absolutely predictable, nothing else in the film is. To begin with, it is totally hilarious, the dialogues witty and keeps you hooked throughout. Every scene you believe you know what to expect in the next, only to be surprised at every turn.

Unlike Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and Sajid Khan’s Housefull (also spoofs) this film spoofs most scenes from romantic flicks such as the famous DDLJ, Dil Chahta Hai and Hum Tum in a beautiful fashion. It’s been done so subtly and makes for a fun watch.

Imran Khan – I thought the actor was a one-film wonder after the flops like Luck and Kidnap. Well, I am glad to say that I was proved wrong. Imran Khan’s role as Jay has been executed extremely well. We have heard of actors’ eyes speaking volumes. Here, we get to see the actor’s eyebrows speaking. That’s right, you read right, Imran Khan’s eyebrows speak a lot. He was totally suited for the role and has done it with absolute ease.

Sonam Kapoor was good. I read a couple of reviews that said otherwise. But, she looks beautiful with a young and innocent face, best suited for this role. She has a stupid smile on her face most of the time but then the role demands it. She plays a girl who is always coochie cooing romance, what else can you expect? She looks good and acts good and considering that she is still on the threshold of her acting career, she has a long way to go. But this babe will go a long way in Bollywood and that’s for sure. I sincerely look forward to seeing her in Aisha along with Abhay Deol.

Samir Soni as director Veer was very good in his role. So was Sammir Dattani as Raj. In fact, the casting overall was perfect with each actor playing his/her role to perfection.

The hot babe Bruna Abdullah as Giselle sizzles the screen with her presence in a few scenes that are worth a mention.

That’s one big Congratulations! to first-time director Punit Malhotra for giving us a wonderful, time-pass film with good actors doing their roles just right.

Verdict: If you go to the theatres to acquire gyaan, then this is not your film. If you see movies just to have fun and be entertained, then don’t miss this one. I am glad I did not.

Rating: ****Snazzy

* Silly

** Shaky

*** Smart

**** Snazzy

***** Super

Film Review: LUCK

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Imran Khan, Danny Denzongpa, Ravi Kissan, Shruti Haasan, Chitrashi Rawat
Director: Soham Shah

Yeah, I was not-so-lucky as to have missed this one! Sigh!

The film is about ‘those boys who lived’ in the style of Harry Potter. It begins with Kareem Moussa (Sanjay Dutt) who lives through a string of accidents that seemed to dog his life. He understands that LUCK is the factor that had kept him alive throughout. His conclusion leads him to finding similar people from around the world and make use of them for betting on an international scale. Tamaang (Danny Denzongpa) assists him for this purpose, travelling around the world and scouting for the right people (I would say, fools).

Those who are caught in their nets are Ram Mehra (Imran Khan), Ayesha (Shruti Haasan), Major (Mithun Chakraborty), Shortcut (Chitrashi Rawat) and a serial killer (Ravi Kissan). I will not go into too many details for those who might still want to watch the film. Various circumstances lead the many characters to join Moussa for the big money to be made at the end of 20 days. But as they get into this racket because of their LUCK, little do they realise that the same LUCK might end their lives. (Some LUCK that!)

Sanjay Dutt is fabulous. It’s a tie as to whether he fits the role or the role fits him. I will give him a distinction.

Ravi Kissan was very good in his role as a serial killer.

Danny and Mithun were okay.

Imran Khan has improved a lot since his last venture and has done quite well.

Shruti Haasan… well, what to say? She looks beautiful and has a sexy figure. Her on-screen chemistry with Imran was very good. Her dialogue delivery could do with a powerful haul. Her acting skills have a long way to go. Hope to see much better in future.

Chitrashi Rawat steals the show. Remember that little girl who played on Shah Rukh’s hockey team in Chak De? Yeah, she is the very same. She walks through her part, so casually and with such confidence that she seems like an oasis in this desert of a movie.

The plot is horrible and very badly put together with a number of loopholes that gape throughout the film. At the end of it, I understood why the multiplex was barely one-thirds full.

Verdict: If your LUCK is bad, you will watch the film.
Rating: **

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super