Film Review: BOBBY JASOOS

Vidya Balan was born for acting and her eyes speak a million words


Cast: Vidya Balan, Ali Fazal, Kiran Kumar, Arjan Bajwa, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi
Director: Samar Shaikh

I had seen a few promos of Bobby Jasoos and was keen to watch the film. Vidya Balan had done a couple of flops recently, but even that didn’t deter me. So Venkat, Vinny and I landed up at Cinemax Sion for the late night show on the first day of the film’s release last Friday. Am I glad we saw the film!

THE STORY

Vidya Balan as an astrologer

Bilkis aka Bobby (Vidya Balan) is almost thirty and lives with her large family in the Charminar area of Hyderabad. Her father refuses to talk to her as she does not take any family responsibility like a well brought up woman but insists on becoming a detective. Unable to land a job with a private detective agency, Bobby decides to start her own firm. To begin with she gets small cases such as one with TV anchor Tasawur (Ali Fazal). Tasavur is not keen to get married but is unable to tell his father directly. He hires Bobby to break the many alliances that come for him.

When she refuses to help him the next time, he gets his parents to ask for her hand in marriage, hoping that she will refuse it. But things don’t turn out the way he plans. In the meanwhile, Bobby lands up with a big job that brings her huge incomes, all through Anees Khan (Kiran Kumar). But soon, she realises that she might be on the wrong side of law. Watch the film to find out how Bobby handles this situation while trying to get out of the unwanted wedding that’s been fixed for her with Tasawur.

MY PERCEPTION

Vidya Balan was born for acting and her eyes speak a million words. She’s simply amazing as Bobby Jasoos and the different guises she wears suit her perfectly. It’s a pleasure to watch her character’s determination to become a private detective despite her father’s disapproval. It’s definitely not easy growing up in a lower middle class community that is so old fashioned; being a woman and wanting to have a career. But her mother (Surpriya Pathak) is a great support.

Vidya looks especially lovely in the first half of the film as she looks fit. The second half has been shot after she's put on quite a bit of weight. The contrast is rather obvious.

Ali Fazal has a smaller role compared to Vidya Balan. But he has done his part to perfection and can definitely act. The scene where Bobby tries to fix an electronic device on him has been excellently portrayed. With barely half a dozen films to his name (3 Idiots is one of them), he appears equal to veteran Vidya Balan. Impressed!

The rest of the cast fitted quite well in their roles and added to the movie’s flavour. All in all, the film is a few minutes over 2 hours and completely entertaining.

VERDICT: Definitely worth a watch

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

Film Review: AARAKSHAN

What went wrong, Mr. Prakash Jha? Did you lose interest towards the end or what?

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Tanvi Azmi, Prateik, Manoj Bajpai, Darshan Zaveri, Hema Malini
Director: Prakash Jha

THE STORY: Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan) is the son of a widow who earns a living by ironing clothes. He has worked hard through school and has gained entrance into college all thanks to Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan), the principal of the most popular educational institution in Bhopal. Deepak is on his way to do his PhD in the USA. Anand’s daughter Poorbi (Deepika Padukone) is also studying in the same college and she and Deepak are in love. Their best friend is Sushant (Prateik), the son of one of the trustees of the college.

Prabhakar Anand believes that education should be made available to one and all. That’s the very reason his college is the most popular in the district since 35 years. Trouble begins when a minister’s nephew, with just 52.07% in Std. XII, is adamant about getting a seat at the college. Everything snowballs out of control when the minister approaches Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpai), a lecturer whose main source of income is from his private coaching classes.

Things get from bad to worse when Anand resigns from his post as principal and later finds that he has lost his home too. Unfazed, he goes on to prove to everyone that his way of educating everyone is the only way to be. Watch the film to see how he manages to do that with his family’s support.

MY PERCEPTION: Amitabh Bachchan gets better and better at acting, if such a thing were possible. He has given a stupendous performance as Principal Prabhakar Anand. Tanvi Azmi – have missed the actor since her last performance as Anupam Kher’s wife in Darr. She is a very good actress and I am surprised that we never saw her in any film all these years.

Deepika Padukone has come a long way and has given a good performance. Congrats Deepika!

Saif Ali Khan was excellent. Kudos! Prateik was good in his role even though it was quite brief.

Manoj Bajpai – why do we see so less of this actor? I simply hated his character and the meanest of the mean look in his eyes. Isn’t that how a villain should be? He was too good and was the perfect villain to Amitabh’s protagonist. The other producers and directors need to wake up and realize what they are missing.

The subject was great and the problem and solution perfectly created. All that said, the film was just tooooooo looooooooong. Where was the editor? Gone to sleep midway or what? And then he suddenly woke up and chopped off a huge slice of the film at the end – yeah, the end was too abrupt.

The movie ran for about 2 hrs and 45 minutes. It should have been just 2 hrs and maybe another 15 minutes at the most. The music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy was good but just did not fit in. They could have done without it. Every scene was prolonged and dragged out. Then, suddenly, in the end, just when the bulldozers were about to strike, Hemamalini walks in and a few seconds later, everything’s hunky dory. What went wrong, Mr. Prakash Jha? Did you lose interest towards the end or what?

VERDICT: You can see it, I suppose

RATING: **1/2 (Better than shaky, less than smart)

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