Reviews

VjMOVIEW: Highly Recommended

Length: 142 minutes Genre: Romantic Drama Director: Vikramaditya Motwane (VM)

Target Audience: Strictly for those who prefer serious and meaningful cinema which has no scope for commercialized treatment Parallels of the Movie: Raincoat, Fanaa

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How often have you seen a meticulously detailed artistic movie appealing to a romantic genre. May be, not yet. If you wish to experience such a cinematic gem, welcome abound to the world of Lootera.

Lootera sounds like a simple story line. A con-man(Ranveer) imposters himself as an archaeologist to visit the Manikpur village in West Bengal only to plunder away with the ancient wealth of local Zamindar. While doing so, he falls in love with the daughter(Sonakshi) of zamindar. Placing his professional duties above his personal commitments he decides to leave Sonakshi on the day of their engagement never to come back. However, the two meet again a year later under intimidating circumstances only to give way to their undying flame of love. Quite antithetical to their characters in previous movies, the lead cast dons an entirely different roles this time. Sonakshi is no longer our loud mouthed and pelvic thrusting blubbery lady and Ranveer is the poignant soul exercising restraint in all his mannerisms. Amidst all this, the two come out with flying colours in their performances and on- screen chemistry.

While, the script and screenplay are penned down with utmost craftiness, it's the Execution which raises the bar. There are myriad emotions downplayed in words but amplified with gestures between Sonakshi and Ranveer. Some scenes worth mentioning are: the painting scene in which Sonakshi teaches the art of painting to Ranveer; the chase sequence between Ranveer and cops. And as Ranveer mouths his bucket list to Sonakshi in one of the scenes, he indeed proves it to us- It was a masterpiece in his career.

VM has shown that he is a rare breed of horse who belongs to an altogether different stable of Bollywood. He sure has a penchant for leaving his audience with an optimistic and cheerful face in the climax. And, as for the music, while I write this review, the triumphant background score still resonates in my mind. Kudos to you, Mr. Amit Trivedi. You have proved yet again that you are here to stay. At last, a movie this year which could get a tear roll down my cheeks.. :-)

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Ghanchakkar, directed by RajKumar Gupta relates to every genre be it comedy, drama, suspense or thriller. Yet, in all this potpourri it loses its very essence, entertaining the audience.

Sanju(Emraan) is a dim-witted husband having a lackadaisical attitude towards his garrulous and outlandishly dressed punjabi wife, Neetu(Vidya). They are poles apart in their personalities which creates subtle situational humour. He pulls off a grand bank robbery(in ABI Bank, a spoof over SBI) with two of his accomplices, Pandit(Rajesh Sharma) and Idris(Namit Das) and makes away with Rs. 35 crore. Quite foolishly, the mastermind of the plan gives him the task of hiding the booty till the dust settles over the matter. Three months down, when the duo contact their partner, Sanju fails to remember them, the loot and the place where he stashed the loot money. Voila!!

With such an interesting first half, the expectation skyrockets to see an equally absorbing second one. However, an impoverished script takes its toll on the movie which essentially relies on only four characters (read foursome act) and thus fails to reach its high(read orgasm).

The scene where Sanju draws a blank face when enquired about the loot money, reminds me of the writer who would have reacted the same way when penning down the second half. Blank!!! The second half feels like an overly stretched Test match after an edgy T-20 like play in first half. The same question of "paisa kahan hai" meeting with similar fate,"Mujhe nahi pata". Gosh! And to talk of the climax, it's a big big let-down. A typical reminiscent of a shoddy attempt to quickly wind off the suspense when you are out of idea.

Performance wise, except Emraan, there is nothing to boast about the remaining trio.If in his earlier movies, he has shown the talent of his heavy lips and tongue, this time its his sulky face and heavy eyes.

At the end, one question keeps resonating in my mind; if these crooks were so adept in looting a bank without getting caught, then why didn't they pulled off a similar heist again instead of running for a blanked out treasure.

Source:www.vjmoviews.com

So, here is Susi Ganesh who is overly confident of his 2006 hit Tamil movie (THIRUTTU PAYALE) that he tries his luck by remaking it in Bollywood. Playing the role signifying the title is our Neil Nitin(as Suraj). the film also has Ameesha Patel(Monica; continuing her dumb character in Race 2) and Puja Gupta(as Sherry; seen in GO GOA GONE). The movie is extensively shot in Mumbai and Kenya. In the entire hide and seek game between Neil and Ameesha, it's the viewers who get restless! There is no entertainment quotient or novelty either in the script,screenplay or dialogues. "Main shola, tu meri Coca- cola" are some of the types tossed at viewers. I wish I could actually think of loads of exciting parts in this sub-standard offering except an unexpected climax and a dishoom dishoom between Neil and poor tribals!!

Performance wise, first half belongs to Kundan's side-kick Murari(Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub) thanks to his cheeky bombshells while the second half is purely of our maverick, Kundan. He doesn't carry qualities of a regular Bollywood actor but shows what an actor is supposed to do. Just Act and act as your character. He emulates three different roles in the movie starting from innocence personified school kid to a matured lover and finally to an emotionally suppressed guilty friend.

Apart from the actors, two other important aspects which work well for the movie are its picturesque setting of Banaras and soulful rendition of Rahman in first half. They both have their own story to tell which gels well with the movie.

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Dil Dosti Etc made under the banner of Prakash Jha explores vice and virtues of youthful life as it rightly proclaims, "when you are young, the possibilities are endless''. The movie has Shreyas Talpade(Sanjay Mishra) and Imaad Shah(Apoorv) in the male leads supported by Smriti Mishra (a prostitute in the movie), Ishitta Sharma(school girl, Kintu) and Nikita Anand (a rich model Prerna).

The movie rests against a facetious bet between Apoorv and Snjay that former would manage to have sex with three girls in a day and the latter would win the college election. Shot extremely in the north campus of Delhi University, the movie touches the social and cultural issues which we face in recent times, like:-

1. Difference of thinking between people of different strata of society (Sanjay vs Prerna)- A girl's preference to career rather than settling down.

2. Goals of life of people from different backgrounds. (Sanjay vs Apoorv)- Shreyas(from rural area in Bihar) is focused and want to win the college's president election while apoorv (cosmopilton guy) whiles his time in college trying to find the meaning of life.

3. Viewing the girls mainly as a Sex Object- Apoorv's incessant in bedding every beautiful he see.

Barring a few cons of the movie like lackadaisical performance of Imaad, forced bihari accent of Shreyas and poor editing, the movie is a decent watch. Thanks to its shocking treatment of its climax, which may raise many eyebrows, the movie may not be a disappointing watch!!