Film Review: WAR… CHHOD NA YAAR

Very credible premise, BUT…… 

Cast: Sharman Joshi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Soha Ali Khan, Dalip Tahil, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Pahwa
Story Idea, Writer, Director: Faraz Haider

Venkat and I went for the film in Cinemax Sion on the day of its release. We were kind of dubious about it when we saw that there were less than 50 people watching the film with us.

THE STORY

The film begins with Captain Raj (Sharman Joshi) of the Indian Army and Captain Qureshi (Jaaved Jaaferi) of the Pakistan Army getting together with a couple of other colleagues to play a game of cards. They sit on the sides of the wire fence at the border and have a ball.

Suddenly, shooting breaks out and the story goes into flashback. At the Defence Minister’s (Dalip Tahil) insistence, GBC TV sends its correspondent Ruth Dutta (Soha Ali Khan) to the border to get information about an impending war between India and Pakistan. But what she finds there is something else altogether.

The Chinese Premier (also Dalip Tahil) has a video conference with the Indian Defence Minister as well as the Pakistan Minister (Dalip Tahil again), promising the sky. Then there is the Defence Minister of the USA (you guessed right that it is Dalip Tahil) wheeling and dealing with the defence heads of both India and Pakistan.

Watch the film for the hilarious turn of events.

MY PERCEPTION

The film runs for 119 minutes and is set in real time of less than 24 hours. The chemistry between Sharman Joshi and Jaaved Jaaferi (yeah, that’s the spelling in this film while the actor keeps changing it pretty often) is very good.

Soha Ali Khan’s role as a correspondent is quite simple and she could not but do it well. There is no scope for emoting or acting that was required.

Manoj Pahwa

The comedy is not too bad but then again it was not that good either. I have seen way better performances by Sharman Joshi, Jaaved Jaaferi and Sanjay Mishra. Despite having four roles, Dalip Tahil was not used up to his potential.

Manoj Pahwa is excellent at comedy and very expressive. He was totally wasted in the film. In fact, the film reminded me of an ad Manoj Pahwa had featured in where he plays an officer in the Indian Military. He is offered a drink by his equal from Pakistan across the wire fence at the border. He was just fantastic in it.

All I can say is that there is no depth to the dialogues and execution. I would blame the writer-director for this.

Having mentioned all the negative points, I must say that the Story Idea is brilliant – befitting the oncoming Golden Age. I just loved the message that the people of both the countries – India and Pakistan – are not interested in war. That’s so true! And I am sure that includes the military of both countries too. It’s quite possible that we have become puppets in the hands of the stronger countries and they are playing on our insecurities. Very credible!

I only wish that the film had been made more interesting.

VERDICT: Watchable! But not worth the 220 bucks we paid per ticket.

RATING: ** ½ (could have been smarter)

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

Film Review: BESHARAM

Besharam is too mild a gaali for the makers of this film

The film had terrible reviews and Venkat refused to go. Vinny, Viggy and I booked for a morning show on Saturday at PVR Cinemas in Phoenix Market City at Kurla. The highlight of the morning was the nearly empty mall and PVR Cinemas.

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Pallavi Sharda, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Javed Jaffrey, Amitosh Nagpal
Director: Abhinav Kashyap

THE STORY

The film is set in Delhi. Babli (Ranbir Kapoor) and his sidekick Titu (Amitosh Nagpal) are car thieves. There is a reason for it. They are both orphans who are not educated. They have no knowledge of right and wrong. They steal cars, sell them and give the money to the orphanage where they live with a dozen other kids of various ages.

Chulbul (Rishi Kapoor) and Bulbul (Neetu Kapoor) work for the police department and are married to each other. Bheem Singh (Javed Jaffrey) is a ruthless criminal who deals in ‘hawala’ transactions. He kills first and talks later.

Tara Sharma (Pallavi Sharda) lives with her widowed mother. She’s well educated and works for an MNC. She has expensive tastes and owns a Mercedes car.

Watch the film to see what happens when Babli from the wrong side of the tracks falls for Tara AND steals her car unaware that it belongs to the woman he loves.

MY PERCEPTION

 Well, please don’t take my suggestion seriously and go to watch the film. At least, don’t waste good money in going to a theatre to do so. The film is bound to arrive in the small screen in maybe a month or two. You can always shut your TV off the moment you are bored.

Okay, I did not run away from the theatre and that was for one reason – Ranbir Kapoor. The other reason was Javed Jaffrey.

Now let me get all the positive points together. There isn’t much, of course.

Ranbir Kapoor is a superb actor and he has done total justice to the role. Javed Jaffrey’s get-up was nothing short of fabulous and he has done his part extremely well. Newcomer Pallavi Sharda looks cute and she can act. Amitosh Nagpal as Babli’s sidekick is very good.

The film was simply awful! There was a song every few minutes and they were not good at all – neither the music nor the scenes. They were each one of them pure torture.

There was nothing to the story and the film was made quite badly. What’s with the loo scenes, I wonder! Rishi Kapoor has been doing so well in his second series. I don’t want to pay good money to see how he uses the toilet. Ugh!

The fight sequences were too prolonged and the comic timing – if there was one – was quite bad. Himani Shivpuri is such a good actress. She was totally wasted in Besharam.

Besharam is too mild a gaali for the makers of this film. Do I say more?

VERDICT: Watch it at your own risk!

RATING: ** (Shaky)

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