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Half Girlfriend (2017)
Half-girlfriend ? : Half-felt emotions, Half-heatedly written....
The whole hoopla around it. The Chetan Bhagat factor. The songs. Everything had fallen into right place until i went to see the film. No wonder this novel adaptation is going for a toss. The whole premise of the movie is that a boy falls for a girl in college and as it turns out the girl is holding herself from falling for the guy because of some estranged relationship between her parents. It's a tried and tested formula in Bollywood. The hero goes out to search for this girl who keeps reappearing and disappearing throughout the movie. I mean, the whole implications, the emotional down-turn, the longevity of his sadness looks all farce and shallow.
The title 'Half-girlfriend' is unjustified and the plot-line is underwritten. So a girl is a guy's half-girlfriend just because she has some parenting issues bothering her. She also has an ambition to sing in the finest cafes of New-York but her song playlist doesn't go any higher than just one cheesy-boring-translated song. In this cause-effect thing where causes were to shallow and effects were too loud the only silver lining in the cloud besides Arjun's average performance and Shraddha's fine range of clothing was Vikrant Massey's(Arjun's friend) performance. He stands out despite an under-developed character. Few scenes might interest you like the ones showing the tender evenings of India Gate and few shot in New York
Talking about the execution, the movie takes place in the flashback. the very point of the flashback is when it returns to the same point back again the audience must feel that they have traveled with the character. They must feel the love, the remorse, the happiness, the emotional ups and downs. for reference.. think 'Kuch kuch hota hai'(not a big fan, though). The flashbacks are supposed to work like hypnosis. You should get lost in time for that duration. But sadly, that didn't happen here and we are left with half-felt emotions. Even for humor-mongers it didn't have much to offer
This novel did not deserve to be made into a movie. In-fact the novel itself should never have published. Chetan Bhagat and his loyal friends in Bollywood should introspect what cinema are they serving.
Go only for time-pass, for a better experience try watching '2 States' at the comfort of your home
Fan (2016)
SRK minus typical bollywood masala equals to FAN
There has been put a viewpoint by most critics that the film would be liked by only the fanatics of SRK. I beg to differ. Why? Because the film, by all means, is worth a watch by an average ordinary cine-goer. Only SRK haters will find unnecessary reasons to dislike it or perhaps, the loyal Salman fans. Inside the theater u could point out those loyal ones who did not leave an opportunity to laugh out loud every time Gaurav's character felt pain and agony coz it wasn't too unrealistically macho like how they see in a 'bhai' film.
But sticking to this film i would say there wasn't a scene in the movie which felt out of place or looked too unrealistic. Never for once would u question the implausibility of the chain of inter-connected events in the movie. Although. some cinematic liberty has been taken but that is avoidable.
You never feel bored and that is when there isn't a song in the film which otherwise, is often put in the movies to cover its weakness for a bad storyline. A lot of people are saying that Gaurav's character overshadowed Aryan's character but that's just Gaurav being a strong character as the film revolves around him but, go and see for yourself that SRK has put an equal effort and hard work in Aryan's role as well. Both leave an impact in the end. This is the first film in which i saw audience glued to their seats even when the film ended. i guess, they were anticipating something more. Such is impact the film had on them.
Its a thriller with some good amount of action where 2 roles are performed so well that sometimes u completely forget it is the same actor. The chase sequences deserve a big thumbs up. The action doesn't leave you dissatisfied and there could have been only that much action coz it isn't an action film.
It would be the first time where family audience are flocking to cinema theaters to see an action-thriller. Otherwise, its the usual song and over- the-top punch lines which lures the family audience. All because there was some degree of honesty in the film that is 'Fan'. Do watch it
Tamasha (2015)
when performances make the movie....
The Title Tamasha couldn't be more appropriate in the sense that apart from the the tamashas, the stories ved's character is so fond of and lives it around him, fantasizes about them; he makes one of his own life. The story is such that it leaves a very little scope for comic punch lines and Indian culture woos that otherwise is seen, how unrequited may be, in many Indian movies. The movie instead is an honest attempt to achieve something different. Perhaps that's the reason why it seems a little odd in places at fist while watching the movie.
Having said that it had more than enough scope to contain a beautiful and most complete love story. The love story, if there had been one, would have been remembered for ages to come. You want to be hit hard and deep in the hearts when there's so much passion between the lead characters. Without giving away the story i would say that its a most complete movie in every sense other than the part where love could blossom between the two.
For me high point of the movie was when Ved impatiently asks the story teller(the old man played by Piyush Mishra) about the next course of Ved's own story to which he aggressively suggests that everyone unfolds their own story in the end and that no one else must tell it for them which is also the crux of the whole story of the movie. A good story which could have been great if there was a little more pinch of brewing romance. All in all....Go for it !! Watch it for the performances of Ranbir & Deepika and an indifferent story
For some who may feel being left a little unsatisfied, I would end my review with this wonderful line: Learn to accept the change for it is the only thing in the world that is constant.
PK (2014)
Intelligent, witty but with traces of repetition
Okay... first things first. When you make a movie, there is one thing that you do not ever try to deviate from besides crafting a good script which of course, no doubt, in this case, is woven very nicely with events connecting one another and making sense out of it and that is the projection of a scene. Barring few, the scenes looked very mediocre when there was actually much scope left that could make it look much bigger and better.
In an attempt to keep it very realistic the makers have kept it very low ground despite retaining it's smartness, though. The desire to feel strong emotions remains unsatisfying and unfilled for it fails to draw a varied range of emotions. It does have substance but with a pinch of dryness. It does deal with societal issues but with taking up the same mantle of RajuHirani-esque style of story telling.
Besides, one can draw clear parallels from Hirani's other past projects in this one too. For instance; In Lage raho, the catch phrases were 'jab koi bimar ho to usse phool do', In munnabhai it was 'jadu ki jhappi', 3 Idiots had 'all is well' while here, it had something to do with 'wrong numbers'. It is important to point out that in all those movies these catch phrases seemed to have come out very organically and looked in line with the progression of the story. where as, here it seemed as if some parts of the story had been played around this to fit the purpose. otherwise, why would an alien, such powerful to read people's mind, choose to believe a Tapasvi Maharaj who had PK's remote control in possession when all he had to do was hold Tapasvi's hand and bring out every bit of the truth.
In some parts movie is exceptionally well and forces you to take a second look on how we perceive things and carve out our beliefs about God while in others you will certainly find traces of repetition. Do watch it for Aamir khan but do not expect too much either.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Different, Witty, Classy ........but lacks somewhat emotionally
Well, This movie surely has a charm of its own & has the potential to be one of the biggest blockbusters this year. The reboot has been made very cleverly to make audience feel a complete different watching experience. Mark Webb's spider-man is witty, thoughtful, he does not take everything too seriously while Sam Raimi's spider-man was intense, dreamy about Marry Jane (MJ), basically he seemed like a poor guy who had nobody to help. At least the portrayal of the character was like that but in Mark Webb's version he seems more confident & cool.
Despite all that has been said, it looks like the makers of this film has deliberately chosen to diverge from plot situations that were present in the former version. In fact it had helped in building of characters but here, TAS(the amazing spider-man)lacks in this aspect. Moreover, it also lacks in the background score. I would not say that it should have been made in exact same way Raimi had made it but TAS is weak in its emotional quotient. Forgive me for comparing it to Raimi's version over and over again but Raimi's less than 2 hrs long film was more dramatic than this more than 2 hrs long film. Although TAS preserves spider-man's integrity and has the full potential to be made into a franchise.
This movie(TAS) was a lot fast paced and therefore it didn't give too much time to audiences to sit back and relate to the characters. But, a big thumbs up for its wittiness, humor, CGI, action. What it lacks is emotion which was a result of avoidance of using basic plot details for the fear of being compared to 2002 Spider-man. So, watch this movie. It will surely surprise you at times but don't go with a certain mindset. Also, This movie does't have a conventional ending which i liked the most. Spider-man comic fans will surely like The Amazing Spiderman over Spider-man as this version is more close to the comics strictly in terms of the character Spiderman that is usually shown.
Agent Vinod (2012)
An amazing 'believable' thriller with a high style quotient
Agent Vinod is a great attempt from Sriram Raghvan. First 25 mins of the movie takes your testosterone to a whole new level with the movie showing brilliant action sequences that takes place in Afganistan, a highly stylized sequence totally blending with the bollywood tunes of 'I'll do the talking tonight' which is a visual treat. Although Agent Vinod gets a little slow paced for the next half an hour when Prem Chopra comes in but, the plot never gets distracted. Second half of the movie is the part which makes it worth a watch and just when you think the film has reached its end ,it will surprise you with a climax that no one anticipates and comes as a real shock. As a whole package it was a brilliant effort which brings the essence of a James Bond film but as Saif plays a RAW agent in the movie, the role had to be played in a way that could look believable to Indian audiences.People will like the film if they don't compare it to the firangi couterparts. A big thumbs up for attempting a movie that takes Indian cinema to definitely a higher level.