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: KAHAANI

One more feather in Vidya Balan's cap!

Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Saswata Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Director: Sujoy Ghosh

The film was released on March 9 and I got to watch it only on April 1. It was more out of choice. In fact, Venkat had already seen it and came along with me to watch it a second time. I was rather reluctant believing that the film may be violent. But the call of Vidya Balan finally won me over and I went to watch it. Am I glad!

THE STORY:

A bio-chemical weapon is used to wipe out all the travelers in one compartment of a Kolkata Metro. The police are unable to trace the terrorists responsible for this.

Two years later, a very pregnant Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in Kolkata from London. She directly goes to the police station to lodge a complaint about her missing husband Arnab Bagchi (Indraneil Sengupta). Arnab had arrived in Kolkata a couple of months ago and had been in touch with his wife for a few days before he stopped calling. After that, he had gone missing – it seems without a trace, as Vidya finds out.

Young Police Officer Satyoki Sinha aka Rana (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) helps her a lot as he feels sorry for the pregnant woman with a missing husband. Vidya goes to the company Arnab had been contracted to work for and later to the hotel he had been staying in. She draws a blank at every point. It seems that Arnab had never been in Kolkata. But he had arrived there and spoken to her many times over the phone. Are things as they should be? Where is Arnab? Is he alive or dead?

MY TAKE ON IT:

Better late than never, I thought as I watched this thriller. Vidya Balan has done an excellent job of playing the pregnant lady in search of her missing husband. Then, giving a great performance is a regular habit with Vidya. Kudos yet again!

Parambrata Chattopadhyay as Rana has done an equally good job as he has the next biggest role to play in the film. Congratulations!

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the rude Intelligence Bureau Agent Khan and Saswata Chatterjee as the innocent faced paid assassin Bob Biswas were both too good.

The film had a great story, excellent script with a perfect director at the helm. Sujoy Ghosh has reeled out a superb film that keeps you hooked till the end. And over and above, the movie was less than a couple of hours.

Amitabh Bachchan croons a very cute song in the film that fits in very well – in between and as the credits roll. It sounds wonderful!

The only thing that rankled was the idea of a fully pregnant woman – at least 8 months pregnant – undergoing those gymnastics that Vidya did. That just cannot be possible. If a real woman had done what the character did in the film, she would have delivered on the roadside. And Vidya does spend a couple of weeks there that take her further into her pregnancy. I am taking away half-a-star for this reason.

VERDICT: Don’t miss the film.

RATING: ****1/2 Super (almost)

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

Official website: www.kahaanithefilm.com

Film Review: THE DIRTY PICTURE

I WAS TOTALLY FLOORED BY VIDYA BALAN’S ACTING SKILLS. SIMPLY AMAZING!

Cast: Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor
Director: Milan Luthria

The film was released on December 2, 2011 (Silk Smitha’s birthday, I believe) while a lot of hype surrounding it has been doing the rounds since the last few weeks. A number of TV channels were interviewing Vidya Balan about the success of the film before we finally – Venkat, Vinitha and I – got around to seeing the film on Monday night. I, for one, was floored.

THE STORY: The story revolves around the real life story of Silk Smitha, a South Indian actor who used to do sexy item numbers and play the vamp in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. But of course, as the makers of the film claim, it could be the story of just any item girl. I don’t have an argument to offer.

The film is set in Tamil Nadu where Reshma (Vidya Balan) lives in a village. She has always believed there is more excitement beyond the borders of the village. No amount of discouragement from her mother changes the girl’s mind. The teenager runs away from home to go live in Chennai. She undergoes a lot of difficulty, many times going without food, to go around studios looking for acting parts to play. Reshma is discovered quite by chance when she does a dance in a flick when the original dancer does not arrive on time. She goes to the theatre to find that the scene has been cut as Director Abraham (Emraan Hashmi) has removed it out of the film, as he believes it’s too dirty to be a part of his movie. Reshma is extremely disappointed. But her fortunes change when the movie does not run. The producer adds her dance sequence back into the film and re-releases it to full houses. He gives Reshma the screen name of Silk and there is no looking back. Watch the film to see how the Sexy Silk rules the screen over the next few years and wears her sexuality proudly. The film also goes on to show her downfall as younger stars begin to appear on the scene.

MY PERCEPTION: The film belongs to Vidya Balan, Vidya Balan, Vidya Balan. She was simply amazing as she played Sexy Silk just perfectly. I remember seeing a number of Tamil films starring Silk Smitha during my college days and later. I had liked the actress as she is one of the few who could also act while performing sexy item numbers. She used to wear her sexuality like a second skin and it sat quite well on her. Vidya Balan has captured that on screen just perfectly. Need I say more?

I have to mention here that Vidya was perfectly made up and looked absolutely beautiful. I thought she always did, only many-a-time, her make-up used to be terrible and most of the time, her clothes. Everything was just perfect in this film.

All the other actors – Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and the rest – well, they all complimented the heroine.

I wonder whether Tusshar Kapoor was in the film just because he is Ekta Kapoor’s brother? The film could have done as well without him.

The film sequences of the 1980s have been captured perfectly and Vidya adds life to each and every one of them. KUDOS! Looking forward to a lot more, Vidya Balan!

VERDICT: A must see, even if you are not a Vidya Balan fan. I am sure you will turn into one after watching this one.

RATING: ****Snazzy

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

Sharing: SHAHID BACK-TO-BACK

Last night it was the Shahid Kapoor-Vidya Balan starrer Kismat Konnection on Zee Cinema. While browsing channels, we landed here as there was nothing more interesting. We (my family) had already watched the film and decided to see it again for want of anything better to do. While criticising Vidya for her dressing sense (more like the lack of it) and her shabby hairstyle, we were enjoying Shahid and Vishal’s antics on screen when advertisements kept interrupting the film.

Fed up, my daughter connected the DVD and we continued to watch the film from were we left off on Zee Cinema. The billiards game was on and that’s why we were hooked. We went on to see the movie completely continuing to compliment Shahid while trashing Vidya Balan. While she is an excellent actor, the woman needs to take a lot more care about her appearance.
'Arre, just look in the bloody mirror before you step in front of the camera!' Anyone looking at her can see that the hair style, make-up and clothes are all wrong. I thought that probably the rats had taken a few bites at her tresses before she began the film – it looked that bad.

Despite the kind of ridiculous concept, we watched the film as very rarely do Vinitha and I give up in the middle of movies as we would rather see it till the end. Shahid was suave, smart and just walked through the film as if it was his birthright. The songs were a pleasure to listen too and we enjoyed Shahid’s dancing. I don’t even want to discuss Vidya’s chaniya choli during her engagement – the constricted top left me breathless, literally. I was holding my chest, feeling the pressure of her clothes on my heart.

Vinitha and I did not stop with Kismat Konnection. We went on to watch Jab We Met.

I have never caught this at the theatres and have always watched it in bits and pieces. Every time I catch the film at home, I see another piece of jigsaw falling in place. In the same way yesterday, I saw the film till the last half an hour was left. I did not want to see Geet’s personality take a dukbhari turn. I preferred to see Kareena’s over-the-top performance as the talkative Geet. The film was a total fun watch with Shahid beginning as a very serious businessman who is heartbroken over the love-of-his-life getting married to someone else. Later, in the company of Geet, Aditya transforms into a cheerful person who can see the lighter side of life.

The dialogues are all extremely well-written and the song and dance was just awesome. Overall, the film is extremely well put together and the two of us really enjoyed catching it on video. Having had our dinner at 9.30pm, it was time for a late night snack and it was Maggi-time at 2am.

An absolutely fun-filled Friday night, thanks to Shahid Kapoor!

Film Review: ISHQIYA

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi
Director: Abhishek Chaubey

The film:

Khalujaan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban (Arshad Warsi) are small time thieves who try to get away with big cash while outwitting a bigger thief. They hope to take shelter at Krishna’s (Vidya Balan) home as they know her husband. But on reaching there, they find out that he is no more. Krishna still offers to let them stay at her home for purposes of her own.

My take:

The cinematography was excellent as the camera has captured some very beautiful village scenes. Naseeruddin Shah has done his part as well as he always does. Vidya Balan as Krishna and Arshad Warsi as Babban have done superb jobs with their acting skills. Arshad Warsi’s dialogue delivery is worth a special mention. The atmosphere and the reality of life up north in the Indian villages have be portrayed authentically.

But, and it’s a big BUT – I personally could not relate to the film at any level. For me, a film should invoke some kind of an emotion. You either want to laugh loudly, or cry softly; you want to love it or hate it; you should feel anger or a sense of satisfaction…

But this one brought forth no feelings in me. I just went to the theatre – which by the way was barely 25% full – saw the film with a couple of smiles at a few dialogues and walked out of the theatre in a state of total apathy.

Verdict: Every man to his poison. This one is not mine.

Rating: ** Shaky

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