Is this the end of the Khan triumvirate kingdom in Bollywood?

2018 has been a very unique year. In a lot of ways this has been an interesting year for those who can understand the historical churns of Bollywood. Somewhere in the  late 80s the violence genre ruled by Amitabh and other names like Dharmendra and Mithun in particular gave way to the new age of fun films and romance. The three Khans happened from 1987 to 1992 and since then all three have only build their fan base with one bit hit after the other. 

2018 therefore has been unique the three Khans who once had movies which felt like fresh new air or now part of the stale old order which is refusing to change or so it seems. The Ayushmans and Rajkumarraos have served warning notices with content rich cinema which has held its own against big names like Race3, Thugs of Hindostan and Zero. In fact the Khans now look ironically struck in a larger than life image which was the case when they came knocking the doors in 1980s with the older superstars then.

The third part of why 2018 is actually a very big manifestation of the kingdom ending is in the fact that never before have all three Khans failed together. In fact most of the times it was two of them succeeding and one not doing so well . If we were to dissect the situation further then the weakest on box office today is the man who once could do nothing wrong at the Box Office – ShahRukh Khan. Post Happy New Year which came almost five years ago, none of his films have done very well in India. Yes his fans and supporters will point out that his overseas collections and therefore worldwide collections still make his movies money spinners but with the last two outings like Jab Harry Met Sejal and Zero even overseas audiences seem to be deserting the auditoriums.

Salman has been in one hit one flop mode for a long time now. However given the way Race3 has bombed it is clear that he will have to be very careful and on his toes with his next one.  The audiences have given a stern message that image and hype won’t work anymore.

Aamir infact has the strongest ground amongst the three Khans. However the way Thugs Of Hindostan went down , in fact its numbers actually sank on the opening Sunday which is extremely shocking. Fact that this movie was the first joint outing of Amitabh and Aamir has also really been the fact that why this movie has been the disappointment of the year and the biggest damage it did was to the perfectionist image of the content rich Khan.

Does this therefore mean that the Khan rule is coming to an end. The answer is difficult to arrive at. In some sense the answer is yes. The audiences are no longer willing to get fooled by formulae struck offering of the Khans. In Salman’s case his logic defying films have been crashing Race3 was a colossal failure. In SRK’s case the audiences are now summarily rejecting his repeated forced romantic avatars. Aamir to that extent did not have an image but it will take some effort to undo the damage of Thugs.

In some ways the answer to the above question is No too because the initial audiences are still guaranteed when these three are in a movie but here is the warning for a long time Amitabh supporters gave this argument when his fortune as a superstar showed decline post 1988. That initial generating audience for Amitabh disappeared sooner than later.

Again in the example of Amitabh is the biggest hope for Khans. Amitabh quickly repositioned himself. He was willing to share the limelight with younger stars. Post Mohabbatein in fact this strategy of competing with younger stars made Amitabh look better richer and far more dignified. In fact the cult of Amitabh grew further.

The Khans could do that, lets face it all three of them are above 50 now. However hard they try some roles will go out of their range now. The key is look further ahead and move to a better new content. Repeating and hoping that days of a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge or Mainey Pyar Kiya of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak will return will be suicidal for the Khans. In any case the audiences have sound the warning bells more than once for all of them. The kingdom will surely change, it will no longer look like the way it has been for the Khans.

Having known them for so long looks like they will survive but only if the changing audience trend is respected by them.

Are the Bollywood film awards becoming a TRP hungry joke ?

Let us face it, cinema awards are usually controversial. More so if they are from Bollywood , though you would be slightly assured as a Bollywood fan that there are times when even Oscar awards have had their share of controversies. Having said that the voting system of Oscars is a bit mature which blesses it with some semblance of professionalism.

The scene in India every year moves from worse to worser. Most of us know the now famous unwritten boycott of Bollywood awards that Aamir Khan has been practicing for years now, it all started when Aamir was deprived for an award for Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander and since then that movie is more remembered for the controversy than its content.

The biggest problem that Indian cinema, particularly Bollywood awards have no or zero credibility is that most of these awards are owned by a certain media house and a lot of media channels in electronic medium will not carry the stories about them or cover them because no one wants to cover a competitor. Add the fact that some of the prominent awards are backed by a TV house too so some awards get unabashed and unfair coverage some other ones. In fact awards are even bartered at times As Akshay Kumar once famously claimed that he was asked to do dance numbers for an award on stage by a famous award ceremony group of Bollywood.

The national awards could have been the answer to being that third party institution of perfect awards however with media ignoring these beyond a point because they have their own awards to protect and then governments ways of executing these awards have made them more like a necessary yearly ceremony value than public respect. In short national awards are more respected by those who win it, the public rarely is involved. In fact national awards also have had their share of controversy in last few decades. Sometimes a hard hitting movie that criticizes the government of the day is not just nominated or sometimes a current favourite matinee idol is given an award just to keep him or her loyal to the powers that be and before you jump to conclusion this has been taking place since 1960s.

This year however another act of complete arrogance was unleashed by a famous awards held by one of India’s most respected film media publication. Let us not name it though for a lot many of you it will not be difficult to hard guess which one it was. The said award has already declared awards for 2018 when the year was a still four weeks away from getting over. Some big banner movies are yet to be released and some of them have some of the biggest makers and actors involved. If you were to draw a parallel it was like Oscars being released without waiting for Silence Of The Lambs in that year.

What made the whole circus laughable was how media groups congratulated the winners. How the winners went about tom toming there trophies in the media and social media. How the fans went berserk. In all this no one pointed out the blatant act of unfair blocking of some deserved actors. For example without a doubt Gajraj Rao’s was a great performance in Badhaai Ho,  but how can we so certain that Tigmanshu Dhulia would not be equally appealing in Zero? The point is not to degrade Gajraj Rao. The point is fairness.

As such whenever a certain actor is recommended over someone else then there is a fan group which gets agitated but at least an award function should show that they have judged all the nominees of that year.

It will obviously take us years to get something which is as credible and consistent as an Oscar but private award owners are the most competent ones to show the way and over the years through consistency we could start looking forward to these. In fact the whole act of these awards being announced sooner than the year itself ending was probably the hunger to be the fastest. TRP is where all media virtue melts.

Are the A-lister makers hell bent on destroying the content goodwill of 2018?

2018 has been a heart warming year for the content lovers . Movies like Badhaai Ho ,Andhadhun ,Tumbbad and Padman to name a few had a different content to show. These were stories written and executed with great creative intent.  After the largely dull 2017 it was like Bollywood was delivering a great form of apology to us audiences and for such movies going to theaters in 2018 was a heart warming and exciting exercise.  For a lot of us ardent movie lovers it was like 2018 might become a kind of benchmark year for makers when different content like Parmanu and Padman worked at the box office.

Then came the A-listers with their hyped over budget good for nothing cinema and literally crashed the party ,like a mannerless chief guest landing on the party cake.  This has been the sad part those who once literally held Bollywood together and could be trusted for entertaining content in their own defined genres were the biggest villains of drag and failed cinema of 2018.

The first one was Salman Khan himself, the man who has been running on fire at the gold office for so many years now. A golden run which started with Dabangg almost ten years ago seems to be ending in such a ironic manner. Race3 is the benchmark of duds this year and probably for some years to come. Salman’s cinema never really runs on logic but this one had things gone bit too far. Over priced tickets ,large screen count and a 3D format could not save it because audiences wanted content. Salman led the charge of garbage in that sense from A listers this year.

Then came Yashraj Films with Thugs Of Hindostan. As a Bollywood follower the failure of this gigantic directionless ship of a movie would not have hurt you so much had it not been such a historic significance movie. This was the coming together of two of our greatest content generated superstars. Amitabh and Aamir. We expected a lot and the first mistake was to trust a average director like Vijay Krishna Acharya with a good watchable movie forget a classic. The hype about the making did not really show on the screen, in fact this one had careless execution and rank arrogance written all over it.

Two Point Zero came and as of now the good news about it is that at least it will make money at the box office. Made at a gigantic budget of 550 crores its box office numbers as of now, however celebrated they are with certain section of the media – are no great shakes. Having said that at least the makers of this movie cannot be labeled as flop. Still when you look at it with the perspective of hype, the fact that this one was helmed by director Shankar – this one is another very average screenplay riding on luck and a gigantic worldwide screen count of 10500 plus screens. Having said that this one too was a disappointment from an A lister team. The arrogance comes from the fact that its makers still compare it with Baahubali and it is nowhere near Baahubali on pure content value.

The problem of our better known makers can be traced to Manmohan Desai, once a ruler of box office he did not realize that audiences were slowly getting bored of his lost and found themes. His drama content was getting repetitive and dragged. The first warning signal came when Ganga Jamuna Saraswati bombed at the box office. Legend has it that when Toofan was being released Amitabh pointed out to Manmohan Desai that final product was not looking good. To which Desai replied audiences will watch what I will show them. Toofan was a tragedy at box office.

Our current A listers are not really learning the lessons. Look at the trailer of Simmba , it is rape and revenge. A theme that I guess properly worked at the box office last time in Aakhiri Raasta ?  Sure Simmba could work at the box office because the makers will ensure we don’t get to see anything else on a new year weekend.  Is this what they are all about? The party spoilers of 2018 Bollywood ?

When remaking old hindi classics was the easy way out !

The recent Simmba trailer has got more eyeballs for the fact that it seems to be heavily inspired from Temper a south movie. In fact for some time now South movies are being remade into hindi and though not so noticed Hindi movies are getting remade in south too, in case you are not aware A Wednesday, Tumhari Sulu and a few others are attempted down south already.

There was however a time in the 1980s which was heralded by the potboiler makers of that decade. They recycled a long forgotten or not so forgotten Bollywood classic again into a superhit and in the process we got some of our biggest stars of the 1980s who reinvented their career and some of the biggest production house of today found roots then through these movies. These movies were then ,interestingly dismissed as flukes by critics but today they are all classics we swear by.

It all started with the unexpected super success of Pyar Jhukta Nahi, Mithun’s career was almost but over and the heady days of Disco Dancer were long forgotten.  The movie was a remake of the 1977 classic Aa Gale Lag Ja. This movie was produced by an unkown name then KC Bokadia. The movie smashed one record after the other and not just became the biggest hit of 1985 but started a golden run for Mithun at the box office,which at one point of time made him next only to Amitabh. As amazing coincidences go you will again find shades of Pyar Jhukta Nahi in Raja Hindustani the Aamir Khan superhit.

Mithun’s second contribution to this trend was the revenge thriller called Aandhi Toofan, completely inspired by Sholay. This one had Hema Malini playing the role of Thakur and the director in an interesting twist  had the villains as a biker gang. The movie had Mithun and Shatrughan Sinha in a Jodi that looked heavily inspired from Jai and Veeru. The movie did not please the critics but rocked the box office. This one was the second production attempt of a man called Pahlaj Nihalani , he found his way from this movie.

Paap Ki Duniya – Pahlaj Nihalani once again produced a movie which was heavily inspired from the Manmohan Desai classic called Parvarish. Where a bandit kidnaps and exchanges his son with the son of a cop.  This was the classic story of good finally winning against the bad. It had Sunny Deol and Chunkey Pandey playing the two lost sons. The movie was one of the biggest hits of that year.

Mitti aur Sona – Pahlaj Nihalani could not have more of the remake formula and nor did the audience appear thirsty, this one was also a surprise hit for Chunky Pandey as a solo hero. This one was a remake of the Navin Nishchal starrer called Hanste Zakhm and Bappi Lahiri’s songs were party favourites.  

Mr.India -  Very few would know this but this biggest classic from science fiction genre of the 1980s was inspired from Mr.X in Bombay a Kishore Kumar classic. Salim Javed had to struggle to find a hero for this one and even Amitabh rejected it. This one finally found a taker in Anil Kapoor and this one launched Boney Kapoor into one of biggest producers of the then Bollywood.

Teri Meherbaniyan – The 1980s had a competition of milking old stories between KC Bokadia and Nihalani and this one was from Bokadia. This superhit where a dog avenges his master’s death from his killers was heavily lifted from Yash Chopra superhit Noorie. As coincidences go , in both the movies the leading lady was Poonam Dhillon. This one also started the trend of one compulsory animal in a lot of movies to come. Labrador as a must have pet trend can be blamed or credited to this movie.

Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak – The biggest contribution to remake banao paisa kamao trend of the 1980s came from Mansoor Khan. It launched a smiling young man on the screen who rules till date – Aamir Khan.  The movie found its inspiration from the other bollywood classics like Laila Majnu and Heer Ranjha where the primary plot point was death of the couple in the climax as the zaalim zamaana won’t agree.  We will need three pages to write about the careers this one launched.

Colossal Duds after hyping them is a long known Bollywood tradition !

So am sure the Aamir or Amitabh fan in you might have come out of the shock of the fact Thugs Of Hindostan, the most anticipated movie of the year has turned out to be a dud. Fact of the matter remains that delivering duds after huge hype is a long maintained tradition at Bollywood you might remember some, you might forget some. However here are some of those movies which had a lot riding on them and they came a cropper on the box office. No they were not ahead of their times movies which later grew to become cult. They were and are plain pure duds. Here are some of those moments of Bollywood history when all had seem lost for those involved.

Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja – This one was forever in the making. Announced right after the super hit almost decade defining Mr.India in 1987, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja was released after one hyped up story in the media after the other. In fact to use a famous line of today the nation wanted to see the movie as soon as yesterday. There were signs that not all was well Shekhar Kapoor the original director left mid way leaving it in the hands of his assistant Satish Kaushik. There was a mad amount spent on great sets ,costumes and cinematography. The music was the first signal the songs when released did not create any fire. The movie was extremely crucial for Sridevi whose crown was almost lost to Madhuri the new challenger on the block. This movie was a headache inducer with even Anupam Kher the villain hamming away to glory. Jackie Shroff was the only dignified thing in this one. Made at a the then King’s treasure budget of Rs.10 crores this one left many crying. As a college friend popularly branded it for me this one was – “Rupaye ki Rani Charane ka Raja !”

Trimurti – This one had created huge controversy. Sanjay Dutt’s connect with the terror world forced the then numero uno maker Subhash Ghai to replace Dutt with Anil Kapoor, an error for which Dutt never forgave Ghai till he worked in Ek aur Ek Gyarah. Trimurti had probably the biggest frenzy for it. It was the coming together of Subhash Ghai with Mukul S Anand the tech whiz kid of 1990s, the man who brought Hollywood feel to Indian Cinema. This movie was also coming together of SRK the then challenger to the established Kings of Bollywood. Trimurti turned out to be a jigsaw of well shot scenes and Anil Kapoor’s Sikander was the only good thing about it. The movie is also remembered for reducing the theater icon Mohan Agashe to a peacock meets and orangutan called Kooka.

Mela – The only good thing this one did is that Akshay Kumar got a wife for himself. As any trivia hungry bollywood buff would know is that Twinkle Khanna had told a pursuing Akshay that is Mela does not work she will marry him. It bombed and how. This one was a remake of Karwan with shades of Sholay in it. Twinkle Khanna was the principle character in this one and her Roopa remains the benchmark of loud overacting for a female star in Bollywood till date. Even Rakhi’s mere Karan Arjun aayenge appears like a dignified Bachchan compared to this one. Add an action choreographer called Mahender Verma as the principle Villain and Aamir Khan in his most hyper avtar ever.  This one was a festival of overacting .

Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon -  This one was the fourth attempt of Sooraj Barjatya. He was the man who could do nothing wrong, someone who had redefined a genre in Bollywood. Someone who brought families back to theaters. This one was his collaboration with Hrithik Roshan the new crush of every Bollywood watching female , a new comer who was then hailed as the first legit threat to SRK. The movie had an animated parrot, a high bp suffering heroine in Kareena and Hrithik’s first and only over acting role till date. This competition of hyper activity crashed and probably caused such a dent in Barjatya’s reputation that it took him a good three years to recover till another marriage video called Vivah saved him.

There is good news in the debacle of Thugs of Hindostan !

I belong to the tribe of those who had heavy expectations from Thugs of Hindostan. Like many I did not exactly celebrate the failure of this hugely anticipated movie. Yes I did laugh at the army of humour filled memes that came out once the below average content of this movie started hitting all of us. So many of us who are either Aamir or Amitabh or both fans would be feeling a bit low and some of us might be getting involved in the war of fans on social media.

However in every big positive news there is a element of caution and in every story of gloom there is hope hidden somewhere , same is the case with this debacle of Thugs Of Hindostan. The message to an arrogant bollywood is loud and clear. You can hog the screens. You can monopolise the choice offered to a viewer. You can ensure that your movie gets extended holiday weekend. The audience will now put its foot down and show you the door. Beyond the weekend and blind fans there is no hope for such low on content high on commotion cinema. Race3 was the first warning and Thugs of Hindustan is almost a final decision from the courts of the audience. The decision is give us cinema of content or we prefer to watch TV or cricket home, or we will still walk in to the cinema but go for the better content three or five week old movies. How many of you would have bet on the fact three weeks back that Badhaai Ho will end up earning more than Thugs Of Hindostan. You can hold on to your chairs while you read this but so far as Indian Box Office is concerned that is looking a clear possibility now.

This is good news any which way you look at it. For sure it will hurt the egos of big makers and hopefully in a positive way. Imagine a determined Aamir Khan willing to make up to the audiences with his next and what if he chooses to have Amitabh a part of that one too. Indian audiences are always willing to forgive and forget. Imagine a studio like Yashraj going back to the Yash Chopra days when content had some respect. This is also good news for the audiences who for once seems to have send in a united voice. This debacle will also force the ready to hype it up Mumbai club of reviewers that audiences will not buy into their hyped up content either. To be fair to the reviewer community they seem to have been reasonably honest with TOH.

This debacle coinciding with content based movies still running strong purely on word of mouth is also restoring faith that slowly after almost a decade of shoot and scoot cinema its usability as an effective tool seems to be coming to an end. It can be termed as poetic justice that a trend of huge screen holiday releases which started with the Aamir superhit Ghajini which also made audiences look at how many crores and not how much content is ending with an Aamir starrer. Given Race3 and now TOH makers will be brushing up screenplays, those who don’t are signing the death warrants of their films.

It is good news that so far as commercial viability is concerned suddenly a Tabbu is coming across as a better bet than hear my accent shake my rear Katrina. People are now preferring to fall in love with a great actress and not a hyped up item girl.

Therefore as an audience and as a fan of Amitabh and Aamir, in that order, I am happy Thugs of Hindostan bombed. In fact its working at the box office would have been the bad news. Directors will now give these two war horses better stories. Producers will look at the thrill count and not the screen count. You have to look at this movie failing and movies like Andhadhun and Badhaai Ho as the great churn that is happening in Bollywood today. Those who do not respect it will perish. In that sense failure of  Thugs Of Hindostan is the best gift the audiences could give themselves this Diwali.

Trailer review - Kedarnath

Review of Thugs of Hindostan

The war of trailers ! Bollywood’s laughable obsession?

In the last few days we have had a deluge of trailers from Bollywood. Some big movies like Thugs of Hindostan, Zero and Two Point Zero and then some smaller ones like a Mohalla Assi or Bhaiyaji Superhit. Obviously the smaller ones did not make a buzz though the loyal fans were always there to lap them up and you never really can predict if the trailer release guarantees box office success.

The obsession of Fans. Makers and the media is now reaching laughable heights. The moment a trailer is releases you have the whole hyper noise pollution on the internet which is about how many views a certain trailer has had and how those views are faster and more than a rival star’s movie. Common sense and logic are of course buried under the carpet of hype in any case. For Example both Zero and Thugs Of Hindostan have had almost 8 crore views on youtube. Now, if these are actual fans and unique people watching the movie’s trailer then at the cost of Rs.100 per ticket each of these movies should clock a revenue of 800 crores at box office. How many would be willing to bet on this number? Let us stretch the logic even further assuming the numbers of one of these movies do go across and bigger then the number we quote here then does that mean that there is a section which watched the movie without even looking at the trailer? If your answer is a yes to the question then such a hyped and intensely pushed trailer did not really reach all those who planned to watch the movie? Then does that qualify as a marketing failure?

There are more questions for the trailer hype brigade. What is the guarantee that I was not watching a trailer only to laugh at it? Or for all the technology sophistication how do you factor the same person watching the trailer from multiple sources like a personal computer, office computer or a mobile etc? Which means if we start cutting off such numbers then the actual audience numbers might not look so impressive.

The idea behind asking all such questions is neither to laugh at a superstar or a big director’s movie making capability. The idea is to simply point at the pitfalls of hype and the dangers of raised expectations. In the olden days while we would anticipate a big movie, like Subhash Ghai’s getting Raj Kumar and Dilip Kumar together in a Saudagar there was not much to read on a daily basis. When a maker tries to feed in too many stories about the making of a movie it really kills the joy. In fact it makes us obsessed with the unnecessary elements really.

For example how does it matter to the audiences that media which turned up to watch Zero trailer was fed with merrut ki authentic chaat or how does it matter if Akshay kumar sat for 4 hours daily with his make up or eight hours? Or for that matter how does it matter that the crew of Thugs Of Hindostan flew all the way to Malta for the ship sequences ? Yes we should respect the hard work that goes into making anything but then all the hard work is also done with the motive to make profits . More important remains the question that should a movie be judged on its ability to entertain,awe and inspire us or should we judge it on how many people saw its trailer in the first four hours of youtube release? When a star starts flaunting the trailer numbers on his twitter page is he actually being humble or is he just showing his big fat ego to us?

My favourite movie till I die will remain Sholay. For me it does not matter that the sound of Gabbar’s boots in that legendary introduction scene was dubbed in London in those days. For me the menace of kitne aadmi they is legendary and worship worthy.

Saw please don’t tell me how many kachchas SRK wore in your movie or how many trailer views twopointzero all languages combined has cracked,  give me entertainment please dear Bollywood and spare me your trailer hype and trailer war obsession.

2.0 Trailer - Video Review

trailer review - zero

The big guns arrive !

Starting this first week of November big movies are arriving. Frankly in the last decade or so , given that bollywood’s bigger makers and superstars have started believing in screen count more than content and holiday weekends more than the editing table , most of the big movies arrive starting Diwali weekend to new year weekend. This year is no different in that sense.  There is however a very interesting battle unfolding now from the first week of November.

The old warriors are being challenged and very very impressively by the new contenders. Two of this years biggest hits which have rewritten domestic box office numbers neither belong to a Khan or a Karan Johar or a YRF films movie. They belong to names like Ranvir Singh and Ranbir Kapoor . How many of you would have given Ranvir Singh that outside chance five years ago?

There is another interesting scene unfolding. Barring Aamir , the other two Khans are fighting a battle of kingdom going downhill. SRK has had a lean patch after a long time in his career. Salman’s reputation took a severe hit with movies like Jai Ho, Tubelight and Race3. The last one still has jokes popping up on social media. Sure Salman has had equal big hits too like Tiger Zinda Hai but call it unfairness , somehow you are remembered for your last movie and that makes Salman a bit down right now.

Does this mean by January we will have new superstars. We don’t know because the old war horses are coming in full blast and it might so happen that by January Padmaavat and Sanju’s success might look like faded memories.

The first one that hits us is Thugs Of Hindostan and if the information of screen count and numbers of show is correct and the movie does hit the right numbers it is looking at 125 crore plus opening. Yes those are the numbers which are very likely because the audience on the ground is excited about watching Aamir and Amitabh together. Should the movie work then Aamir will go up on the ladder yet again though the six footer never stopping machine will take some credit for that. He has already hogged trailer credit. You could be looking at 2018’s biggest hit in this one.

Then comes 2.0 the coming together of Akshay and Rajnikant. This one could surprise us with the numbers. It will be interesting to note though how much credit Akshay will be able to take from the shadows of Rajinikant. Either ways Akshay will probably extend his purple patch with this one.

The other biggie this year is Zero. SRK’s fans for sure are waiting for this one with some excitement and this could be that movie which will mark the return of the Baadshah,  in some ways this one has the same anticipation that Thugs Of Hindostan has because this is the first coming together of our longest running superstar and a master story teller called Aanand L Rai. This one could rewrite some box office numbers.

Then there is this under rated dark horse called Simmba. Rohit Shetty will direct Ranvir Singh in what seems to be an out and out masala action entertainer. Rohit Shetty is probably the quietest big hits maker and probably this movie has got the least of the limelight from the other three and we know at times the least talked about does the best. Should Simmba work it will be very difficult for anyone to take away the fact that 2018 belonged to Ranvir Singh.

There is a lot riding on these movies more than producers money. Long term star reputations is one for sure. Should any of these movies fail. You will see rankings being adjusted and Bollywood for sure will have a new power hierarchy. You will probably see bitter fan wars too on social media. This winter is one of the most exciting winters in a long time for Bollywood. There is actually a game of thrones unfolding in front of us starting the first week of December.

May the best warriors win. We the audiences for sure are not complaining. Bring it on.

Teaser Kedarnath review

Video Review of Baazaar (Hindi)

Video review of Baazaar (English)

Trailer Review - Mohalla Assi

Trailer review - Bhaiaji Superhit

Pihu trailer review

Andhadhun,Badhaai ho, Tumbbad and Pihu – the content brilliance of Bollywood keeps growing in 2018

2017 was a bad year for bollywood. That is also an understatement. Big banners had dished out real below average content and the year saw tragedy after tragedy at the box office. 2018 in that sense has been sunshine in a big way. Not that movies have just done well. Some of them have probably been riding a wave when audiences seem to be in a mood  to lap up just whatever comes in the way having said that success is an undeniable fact for all these movies.

That 2018 could turn out to be different is when a movie called Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety broke unprecedented barrier by crossing the 100 crore mark. Then came the surprising success of movie like Baaghi2 and Satyamve Jayate. In any other year probably these movies would have not done so well. However the simple bottomline is audiences showered their love on these movies and they got great profits for the makers.

The real noticeable part of 2018 has been the range of movies that have hit the bulls eye at the box office. Some of them came without much hype. The biggest example was John Abhraham’s Parmanu, a movie that came with almost zero hype because reportedly John had a tiff with the makers.Yet the movie clocked not just revenue but at some centers it ran for 50 days plus.

Around or much before Parmanu there were three movies which indicated 2018 audiences were up for different content and genres as were the makers willing to make up for a bad last year Padman – a movie that focused on proper healthcare and menstrual hygiene for women – Hichki – about a woman fighting her on health issue trying better education for have nots and Raid – a story on what lay in store for tax officers when they locked horns with the powerful.

The real game changer has come in the last two months. Trust Ayushman Khurrana to ride this wave of change this actor has done more different content than some of our other high rated stars could ever imagine.  Riding on his image and good work from last year Ayushman came up with Andhadhun. Written and helmed by the master of suspense stories Sriram Raghavan. This one kept the audiences hooked and a story where Tabbu has played her darkest character till date has been raking in moolah since. Andhadhun celebrates the comic side of darkness and people have loved it.

Just on the back of Andhadhun came Badhaai Ho which has touched a story which so many of Indian households in smaller and even bigger town have seen. So many couple in fact go for one more child in the hope that this might ignite the mundane of their lives. Yet it took so many years for a director to touch the topic. Amit Ravindernath Sharma brough such hilariousness and emotional depth to the story that this one has almost eclipsed everything around it . How many of you even knew the real name of that pleasant face guy was Gajraj Rao who is now an overnight star because of the movie. The success and buzz around Badhaai Ho is so big that I will not be surprised if this one holds its own against Thugs Of Hindostan when it is released.

Tumbbad is another slow and confident example of success, if the claims of this one being made at a shoe string budget of 5 crores are true then this one is a big box office winner too and a movie which worked purely on visuals and moments. There are barely dialogues in the movie.

The last brilliant stuff has come in the trailer of Pihu a two year old girl trapped in a flat with probably just the dead body of her mother will leave you chilled to your last nerve. A content which no director of 90s would touch.

The year has opened us to content and the game is changing. In a time when some of our celebrated stars have delivered duds like Race3 and our celebrated makers ended up murdering classics like Sairaat with its shining lipstick version called Dhadak , true content has ruled the roost. Thank god and the content directors for making the theater a worth visiting place once again.

मनोरंजन , कुछ सन्देश और हास्य का महान संगम है बधाई हो !

महान फिल्म वो नही होती जिसके बारे में मीडिया प्रशंसा के पुल  बाँध दे , महान फ़िल्म वो होती है जो ऊपर से तो सीधी और सहज दिखे लेकिन बड़े आराम से आपके दिल को छू भी आप को कुछ सीखा भी जाए। बधाई हो इस लिहाज़ से इस साल की बॉलीवुड की सबसे ज़बरदस्त फ़िल्म है। ऐसी फ़िल्म का बॉक्स ऑफिस पर कमाई करना तो तय होता ही है लेकिन सबसे अच्छा यही होता है के ऐसी फ़िल्म का सफल होना लगभग सबको समझ आता है। 

कहानी है जीतेन्द्र (गजराज राव ) और उनकी पत्नी प्रियंवदा ( नीना गुप्ता ) की। रिटायरमेंट के नज़दीक पहुँच रहे शांत स्वभाव के जीतेन्द्र अपनी पत्नी  को प्यार करते हैं और उनका परिवार भी खुश है।  एक माँ ( सुरेखा  सीकरी ) और दो बेटे नकुल (आयुष्मान खुराना ) और गूलर।  एक दिन अचानक सबको पता चलता है के प्रियंवदा गर्भवती है और यहीं से कहानी शुरू होती है। पूरा परिवार तनाव में आता है बिखरता है और फिर धीरे धीरे यूँही वापस जुड़ कर इस घटना की सहजता  को स्वीकार भी करता है और यहीं से निर्देशक ये सन्देश देने में कामयाब होता है के ज़िम्मेदारियाँ अपनी जगह हैं और इंसान की इच्छाएं और उसका अस्तित्व भी उतना ही ज़रूरी है। 

फ़िल्म की सबसे बड़ी खूबी यही है के फ़िल्म की पटकथा इतना सोच कर लिखी गयी है के कब आप हंस पड़ेंगे कब क्या होगा और कब कौन सा पात्र क्या करता है ये आपको बहुत चौंकाता भी है और फ़िल्म से बाँधे  रखता है।  जैसे नकुल को अचानक अपनी प्रेमिका के घर पर उसकी माँ के ताने सुनकर एहसास होता है के वो अपने परिवार से कितना अन्याय कर रहा है। बूढी सास अपनी बहु प्रियंवदा के आत्मसम्मान के लिए अपनी बेटी और उसकी रिश्तेदार पर आक्रामक हो जाती है। सबसे ऊपर है फ़िल्म का हास्य तरह तरह के संवादों और घटनाओं से आप बार बार  हँसते हैं जैसे गजराज राव का जूते पोलिश करते करते अपने बेटे  से नज़रें चुराना। 

फ़िल्म की भावनात्मक गहरायी बहुत खूब है अंत में परिवार के वापस जुड़ते ही जब जीतेन्द्र और प्रियंवदा चुपचाप उन्हें रसोई से देखते हैं तो आपको अपने परिवार के ऐसे पलों का एहसास होता है। फ़िल्म में कई अच्छी साथ चलने वाली घटनाएं भी हैं जैसे बड़े भाई का अपने छोटे भाई के साथ होती मार पीट के लिए स्कूल के बिगड़े लड़के से भिड़ना। या नकुल की अपनी प्रेमिका के साथ बिगड़ती और फिर बनती कहानी।  सान्या मल्होत्रा ने एक बार फिर अच्छा अभिनय किया है। 

फिल्म में सभी ने अच्छा अभिनय किया है लेकिन सबसे आगे का अभिनय रहा दादी के रोल में  सुरेखा सीकरी का , ये बूढा ज्वालामुखी इस फ़िल्म की जान है। गजराज राव का ये अब तक सबसे सुलझा अभिनय है। नीना गुप्ता ,आयुष्मान खुराना और गूलर जैसे सभी अभिनेता अपने काम जुट कर निभा गए हैं। फ़िल्म का संगीत भी उम्दा है  और गाने जंचते  हैं। 

मेरी रेटिंग पूरे पांच स्टार 

ये वो फ़िल्म है जो परिवारों और दोस्तों को साथ बैठ कर देखनी चाहिए। 

Video Review of Badhaai Ho !

Video Review of Rangeela Raja Trailer

Video Review of Namaste England

Should we judge SRK only by the success of ZERO ?

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इंसान के लालच और उससे जुड़ी लोककथाओं पर आधारित दिलचस्प पेशकश है तुमबाड़ !

कभी कभी बस बिना ज़्यादा शोर किये कुछ निर्देशक हमें ऐसी कहानी दिखा देते हैं के देख कर मज़ा आ जाता है।  निर्देशक जोड़ी रही अनिल बर्वे और आदेश प्रसाद ने एक ऐसी फ़िल्म हमारे सामने रख दी है के आप फ़िल्म देख कर जब बाहर निकलते हैं तो थोड़ा बहुत अपने लालच को नियंत्रण में रखने की सोच लिए निकलते हैं।

सबसे बड़ी बात ये के निर्देशकों ने कहीं भी लालच की कमज़ोरी का कोई उपदेश नही दिया है। सोहम शाह के विनायक में लेकिन थोड़ा बहुत हम सबको अपना चेहरा दिखेगा। 

कहानी विनायक के बचपन से शुरू होती है जब विनायक ,उसका भाई और उसकी माँ तुमबाड़ में छुपे ख़ज़ाने के बारे में जानते हैं लेकिन वहाँ से चले जाने का फैसला करते हैं। विनायक के बचपन में तुमबाड़ की भयानकता होती है लेकिन वो फिर भी छुपे ख़ज़ाने की तलाश में उसी जगह वापस बार बार आता है। इस ख़ज़ाने से उसे एक अच्छा जीवन तो मिलता है लेकिन फिर धीरे धीरे बढ़ता उसका लालच एक दिन उसे ख़ज़ाने के मालिक एक पीड़ित भटकते राक्षस हस्तर के हाथों मरवा देता है। कहानी के अंत में अच्छा ये होता है के विनायक का बेटा उस लालच के रस्ते से हट जाता है।

फ़िल्म की ख़ूबी ये है के कहानी कभी भी अपने बहाव में न धीमी होती है न यहाँ वहाँ भटकती है। पूरी फ़िल्म आपको उसके पात्रों के बढ़ते लालच और फिर उससे होते उनके गलत अंजाम को दिखाती है जैसे विनायक के धोकेबाज व्यापारी मित्र राघव की हस्तर के हाथों होती मृत्यु। 

तुमबाड़ का छायांकन, कहानी की पटकथा  और पार्श्व संगीत उम्दा स्तर का है।  फ़िल्म की कहानी को प्रभावी बनाने में ये तीनों आगे का काम करते हैं। सोहम शाह ने बहुत अच्छा अभिनय किया है और उनके पुत्र का अभिनय करने वाले बाल कलाकार भी अच्छे हैं।

तुमबाड आपको अपने हॉरर से कम डराती है लेकिन अपने अंदर छुपे लालच से ये हमें शायद ज़्यादा अवगत करा देती है। फ़िल्म ज़रूर देखें अगर आपको थोड़ा सोच विचार के बनायीं गयी अच्छी फ़िल्म देखना पसंद है तो।

Video Review of Tumbbad

A message giving story that never bores you !

Tumbbad is not your regular masala movie yet at no point does its different presentation and treatment never makes you bored or the feeling of getting trapped in a intellectual nothing movie.

Tumbbad is brilliant story telling by the director duo of Rahi Anil Barve and Anand Gandhi. At no point do they let go of the story which breeds itself more on human greed and less on horror. In fact the horror element in this movie is how we see human beings and three generations getting trapped into a life of darkness.

The story revolves around a treasure hidden in a place called Tumbbad. Vinayak is a by nature greedy man who goes after the treasure and lives high life for sometime because of it. In the process he slowly turns into a man who is not afraid of killing people and exploiting their greed to become more rich. In the end he meets the same end as those who were consumed by their greed . The climax is well thought of and is a bit what we have heard in so many famous folk tales around greed. The way it is executed makes you admire the creativity of the story tellers involved and it does leave a message of positivity with the son finally rejecting the path of greed.

What makes Tumbbad watchable is that its length has been kept short at 104 minutes the movie never really slackens or becomes boring. The cinematography is pure experience and the background score adds to the brooding environment.

Tumbbad is not a regular horror movie , in the sense that its horror scenes are not exactly meant to scare you. It is the story element build around horror that makes you scared. It is also scary in the sense that how a basically greed and ambition driven person will pass the same value system to his child and that is brought out so brilliantly in this movie.

The movie leaves you both scared and awed by a simple story so powerfully told. Tumbbad is a must watch for those who love different cinema which is actually different. This movie might or might not work out at the box office , though I will not be surprised if it does given the way audiences reacted to this one while I was watching it

Sohum shah is obviously the stand out performance but so is the boy who plays his son. A must watch for quality cinema hunters.

Are we being too harsh on Thugs Of Hindostan ?

The trailer of Thugs of Hindostan is all set to touch 6 crore plus views.  In just about one week of its release. You can call this phenomenal anticipation of the movie for one simple reason Amitabh and Aamir coming together for the first time in what has been a three decade long wait for audiences.

There is something else too which has happened post the release of Thugs Of Hindostan. The equal amount of ridicule the trailer received from those who expected better.  What better they expected is not yet known but they expected better.

This is the irony of all major entertainment movies. Deep down we love them. We enjoy them but somehow we are made to feel guilty about enjoying them. These are not intelligent films we are told and what exactly is an intelligent film nobody knows. For the time being let us stay focused on the criticism of the movie.

The critics told us this one looks heavily inspired from Pirates of The Caribbean. They probably had a point. Sure the movie looked visually inspired from that movie or was it? The movie tells the story of pirates who ruled the sea against the Britishers. So while we can see inspirations the story is different. The larger question is how much of our cinema is original ? Sholay , Deewar, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge all drew inspirations from yesteryear movies.

There was another bunch which was not very happy about how Aamir came out in the trailer. The complain was he was loud, he was trying heart. That if you ask me is a brilliant stroke by the director. Aamir’s loudness will blend superbly with Amitabh’s cold ruthless Khudabaksh Azaad in the movie. Remember how Veeru’s flamboyancy was such a perfect foil to Jai’s cold thinker in Sholay ? IF the director has written a good screenplay there will be sparks when such contrast characters will clash on screen. You will also have to understand that sometimes it is a loud character which makes a movie work, you might want to think of Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met to understand my point.

Trust the women’s equality brigade to take potshots at a new big bollywood release and this one was no different. This time the criticism was the women did not speak in the trailer. Sure they did not but at least one had shooting arrows and fighting man to man and did not come across as a decorative material. Amitabh teaching archery to one young girl also was comfortably ignored a man teaching use of a weapon to a girl is liberating enough, no ? More importantly when exactly did the director tell or claim that he is making the next Arth or Mother india ? a masala entertainer it is and there ends the matter.

Then came the never satisfied with the plot brigade. True the trailer did not give much of a glimpse but did it cross us that could exactly be strategy? Give us the grandeur of the movie but do not reveal the plot?. That is a reasonably perfect strategy because when a movie so anticipated as Thugs Of Hindustan is coming up hiding the actual content is the best bet to keep the aura and ensure that the first reactions build on ground spiral of feedback for a film.

Sometimes criticism is executed largely because we the audiences and observers fail to control our expectations. Else look hard what was so great about the teaser of SRK’s Zero but the audiences loved it. For that matter I recall the trailer of Ayaary which promised great things but what a cold bhatoora in the freezer the movie turned out to be. Worse is we did not know what to expect but would want to be politically correct and say oh the trailer was just about ok.

Am for sure counting days to November 8^th. I want to see who will win the most anticipated battle of histrionics. Before the bachchas came to the party the big daddy of action was Amitabh. In this trailer he is kicking ass with such flair that you remember the chair kicking Vijay of Zanjeer.

Thugs Of Hindostan is that full of cheese hot burger not meant for those who are scared of living life. Am going to dig in day one. Sword to the critics Azaad !

Video Review of Namaste England Trailer 2 !

video review of Loveyatri

ये धुन आपको अपनी गिरफ़्त में जकड़ लेती है

कुछ फिल्में होती हैं जिनकी लम्बाई दो घंटे के आस पास होती है और आप फ़िल्म शुरू होने के दस मिनट बाद  अपनी घड़ी ताकते हैं के यार कब फ़िल्म ख़त्म होगी। अंधाधुन की लम्बाई ढाई घंटे के ऊपर है और जब ये फ़िल्म ख़त्म होती है तब आपको पता चलता है के ढाई घंटे ख़त्म हो गए। बाकी समीक्षा लिखने से पहले ये भी कहना होगा की जिन निर्देशकों को तनाव भरा असलियत जैसा सिनेमा बनाने के शौक है  और जो मीडिया से तो चार या पांच सितारे समीक्षा में  निकाल लेते हैं लेकिन बनाते फ़िल्म ऐसी हैं जिससे दिमाग का लस्सी दही मठ्ठा सब बन जाता है उन्हें श्रीराम राघवन की टीम से पटकथा लिखने की दीक्षा लेनी चाहिए।

फ़िल्म की कहानी एक अंधे संगीत कलाकार आकाश की है जो लोगों को अपने अंधे होने की एक्टिंग कर रहा है उसे ये लगता है अँधा बनने से पियानो बजाने की कला और निखरेगी। उसकी ये सनक उसे  सिमी (तब्बू) और उसके प्रेमी महेंद्र (  मानव विज ) द्वारा की गयी एक हत्या का चश्मदीद बना देते हैं। उसके बाद इस दलदल में आकाश धंसने लगता है और सिमी और सके प्रेमी से हिसाब  की ठान लेता है।  यहाँ से कहानी में इतने ज़बरदस्त घुमाव और झटके आते हैं के आप को मज़ा आता है लेकिन उसके भी ऊपर मज़ा देगी आपको इस फ़िल्म की ज़बरदस्त कॉमेडी जो इस फ़िल्म के दृश्यों कलाकारों के अभिनय और मज़ेदार संवादों  के ज़रिये लगातार ऊपर उठती है।

फ़िल्म में निर्देशक ने घटनाओं और कहानी के तार इस  ढंग से जोड़े हैं के आप की सोच से बेहतर घुमाव और झटके आपको देखने को मिलेंगे।

फ़िल्म में सभी ने अभिनय उम्दा किया है। लेकिन सबसे आगे हैं सिमी के अभिनय में तब्बू उन्होंने इस फ़िल्म में रंग बदलने वाली औरत का अभिनय ऐसा किया है के आप बस यही सोचते हैं के तब्बू परदे पर ज़्यादा क्यों नहीं आतीं हैं। आयुष्मान ने भी अपना अभिनय ज़ोरदार किया है और इस फ़िल्म के छोटे  छोटे पात्र भी रंग जमा देते हैं।

अगर आपको कॉमेडी या थ्रिलर में से कोई एक भी पसंद है तो ये फ़िल्म पैसा वसूल फ़िल्म है , मुझे हैरानी नही होगी अगर ये फ़िल्म बॉक्स ऑफिस पर सौ करोड़ निकाल ले जाए।

Video Review (English) - Andhadhun

Video Review of Andhadhun

Anurag Kashyap - Ahead of his times or just an over rated cinema maker?

As the most clichéd saying goes you can like him or hate him but you surely cannot ignore him. Anurag Kashyap has rattled as many as he has impressed. My opinion on him has changed from a fan to a viewer bored of his directionless storytelling at times.

There can be no doubt that after Ram Gopal Verma and much under rated Sudhir Mishra, Anurag Kashyap has given some of our best dark cinema. Whether it was the controversial Black Friday or brazen in your face trend setting DevD. Anurag Kashyap’s passion was noticeable in everything that he did.  That his cinema could not drive box office numbers was at least briefly answered with the smashing success of what remains are best gangster movie since Satya – Gangs of Wasseypur.  Anurag Kashyap swam against the tide and came up with a five and a half hour movie. To make it exhibitor friendly he decided to release it in two parts. Thank god for that.

Gangs of Wasseypur is now part of popular culture. Its dialogues and songs have become part of Bollywood history.  Characters like Sardar Khan, Faizal and Mohsina have become bigger than the movie.  Anurag Kashyap was suddenly post this movie Subhash Ghai meets Tarantino.

What made Anurag a great maker for his the then fans like myself was his story telling against the dynamics of box office and what the middle class would want. So his characters would use cuss words like Rajinikant tosses cigarettes and googles. His Devdas would choose to walk away with a Chandramukhi. Surprisingly the middle class loved him most for this depiction.

Then came what I term as his fall. Post Ugly the Anurag Kashyap that we knew as a honest in your face story teller started allowing his own political or ideological biases to mix with his story telling. The media continued to praise him because once a blue eyed boy with the media the status usually does not change.  The audiences however started growing a little bored of extra dosage of darkness with every passing movie and contrary to his earlier efforts like a GOW or a Gulaal. Slowly his movies started having dragging screenplays.

Udta Punjab was the first signal the Anurag is letting his other viewpoints on issues come in the way of what can be honest story telling. Udta Punjab still got in some audiences because of the huge controversy it brought with itself. Pahlaj Nihalani can owe his entire CBFC fiasco on this one movie.  

The real pointer that for all the media adulation Anurag was losing his audience connect came with Mukkabaaz.  This movie was and remains the biggest indicator of how Anurag’s inner confusion or stubbornness to carry political messages was hitting his story telling. Mukkabaaz was actually two stories divided by an interval. The first half was a great love story mixed with a young man’s determination to do well at all odds. Post interval it wanted to be a lot of things.  A message against cast based venom , though it almost ended up being a one caste hater movie itself.  Mukkabaaz also wanted to be lecture on sports infrastructure. The director also wanted to lecture the ruling class on state of things. However well intended everything was the movie fell on its jaw at the box office.

Though he did not direct it but his involvement as a maker was clearly reflected in Bhavesh Joshi Super Hero where the villain looked remarkably similar and repetitive of the villain we saw in Mukkabaaz in fact the most visible weakness of BJSH was in the fact that this movie too was losing its steam post interval. Let us not even discuss Bombay Velvet which came before Udta Punjab.

 

The fact that Anurag was maybe low on confidence or was brazenly trying to do something different is when he went into attempting Manmarziyaan. This was like RGV was directing a movie written by Bansali. Once again the media went bonkers on this one. Like a enthusiastic mother would insist that every visitor listens to her son’s kindergarten poem for months.  Only the audiences did not find Manmarziyaan any better or greater. The box office has spoken.

Anurag might hit back or the Anurag of Wasseypur might never return. Whether you remain his fan or term him over rated remains your call as an audience. For a brief while though there was excitement in the mundane skies of Bollywood.

video review of manikaarnika teaser

video review of Dassehra Trailer

हँसी के पलों से भरपूर दिल को छूने वाली ज़मीन से जुड़ी कहानी !

पटाखा लगभग बिना किसी पब्लिसिटी के रिलीज़ हुई फिल्म है और शायद इस महीने की सबसे बेहतर फ़िल्म यही है। कुल मिला कर फ़िल्म में जो हास्य से भरा मनोरंजन का पहलू है वो पूरी फ़िल्म पे छाया रहता है। मध्यांतर तक तो ये फ़िल्म इतनी तेज़ गती से भागती है के आपको लगता है के विशाल भरद्वाज कॉमेडी के मामले में शायद डेविड धवन के गुरु बन सकते हैं। मैं ये बात डेविड धवन का सम्मान करते हुए ही लिखा रहा हूँ वो बहुत ही बड़े कॉमेडी फिल्मों के निर्देशक हैं। 

पटाखा एक सीढ़ी कहानी है हर वक़्त लड़ती झगड़ती दो बहनों की।  एक का नाम बड़की और दुसरे का छुटकी।  यानी राधिका मदन और सान्या मल्होत्रा। ये दोनों बहनें एक दुसरे से दूर जाना चाहती हैं लेकिन ससुराल भी एक ही मिल जाती है। यहाँ से ये दोनों एक दुसरे से अलग होने का प्रयास करती  हैं और इसके बाद क्या होता है यही फ़िल्म की कहानी है। 

पटाखा का सबसे ज़बरदस्त पहलू है इसके हास्य पर आधारित सारे पात्र जा बड़की और छुटकी दो बहनें हों या डिपर या उनके पिता व गांव का ठरकी पटेल या फिर उनके दो प्रेमी , सारे पात्र आपको लगभग हरेक वक़्त हंसाते ही हैं। इन पात्रों  को निर्देशक ने कहानी में बड़े अच्छे ढंग से बिठाया है। यानी कहानी सिर्फ़ दो बहनों की नही रहती। कहीं डिपर महत्वपूर्ण है तो कहीं लड़कियों का बाप। आप इस फ़िल्म में एक कलाकार उठा कर ये नही कह सकते के इसने ढीला अभिनय किया है। 

पात्रों के आपस के पल और भी फ़िल्म को ऊपर उठाते हैं जैसे वो दृश्य जब  विजय राज़ अपनी बेटियों को बीड़ी पीने के बुरे नतीजों के बारे में सिखाते हैं।  या वो दृश्य जब डिपर अपने ढंग से नारद जैसे बड़ी बहन  को भड़काते हैं। 

ये फ़िल्म देखते देखते शायद आप अपने भाई या बहनों के साथ हुए झगड़ों के बारे में भी सोचें। 

निर्देशक ने थोड़ा बहुत इस फ़िल्म के ज़रिये शांति से रहने की सलाह दी है और अपने पड़ोसियों से मेल मिलाप से रहने का भी हल्का सा सन्देश दिया है। हालाँकि निर्देशक को ये भी कहना चाहिए था के शांति के लिए दोनों तरफ से ईमानदार पहल ज़रूरी है। 

इस मनोरंजक पैसा वसूल फ़िल्म को मेरी तरफ से चार स्टार 

Video Review Of Pataakha

बुरे हालातों पर अच्छाई की जीत की कहानी है सुई धागा !

सुई धागा मौजी (वरुण धवन) और उसकी पत्नी ममता (अनुष्का शर्मा) के संघर्ष की कहानी है।  मौजी के हालातों में आर्थिक तंगी भी है और मजबूरी भी लेकिन फिर भी उसका तकिया कलाम है - सब बढ़िया है। एक दिन उसकी पत्नी उसकी बेइज़्ज़ती होते देखती है और कहती है के ऐसी ज़िन्दगी से बेहतर है के वो अपने दादा की विरासत कपड़ों की सिलाई को फिर आगे बढ़ाये , मौजी कई परेशानी झेलता इस रस्ते पर आगे बढ़ता है और एक दिन वो और उसकी पत्नी अपनी मंज़िल पा लेते हैं। सिर्फ अपनी मंज़िल ही नही पाते वो अपने आस पड़ोस के लोगों को भी एक अच्छे काम पे लगा लेते हैं जो सिलाई का काम छोड़ कुछ और कर रहे थे।

सुई धागा एक सुखांत कहानी है इसलिए हम में से कुछ फ़िल्म के अंत को हजम न कर पाएं लेकिन निर्देशक ने इतना तो दिखाया है के मेहनत और अच्छी सोच के सहारे आदमी ज़िन्दगी की जंग जीत भी सकता है और सुकून भी पाटा है।

फ़िल्म के तीन ज़बरदस्त पहलू हैं।

पहला - इसके कलाकारों का अभिनय और जिस तरह से निर्देशक ने उन्हें उभारा है।  जैसे वरुण और अनुष्का का अभिनय तो अच्छा है ही साथी कलाकारों ने भी रंग जमाया है ख़ास कर वरुण के पिता के पात्र में रघुबीर यादव ने क्या छाप छोड़ी है। छोटे छोटे पात्र जैसे पलटेराम और मौजी का मुस्लमान दोस्त जो उसकी बड़ी मदद कर देता है।

दूसरा - फ़िल्म की कहानी अपनी सादगी को न छोड़ते हुए भी आपको बांध  लेती है और कभी भावनात्मक दृश्यों से जैसे रघुबीर यादव अचानक आकर सिलाई की मशीन 'को ठीक कर देते हैं और कभी ज़बरदस्त हास्य के दृश्यों से फ़िल्म आपको परदे से ध्यान हटाने नही देती।

तीसरा -  फ़िल्म में अन्नू मल्लिक ने आरसे के बाद अपना जौहर दिखाया है और कम से कम दो गाने ऐसे हैं जो फ़िल्म को गहरायी दे जाते हैं।

सुई धागा को आप महान फ़िल्म की तरह नही देखें एक अच्छी मनोरंजक फ़िल्म की तरह देखें तो ये फ़िल्म आपको ज़रूर पसंद आएगी।

Video Review of Sui Dhaaga

video review of Thugs Of Hindostan Trailer

Video Review of Bazaar

बत्ती गुल होगी आपके दिमाग की और मीटर चालू रहेगा आपके बोरियत से भरे आंसूंओं का !

इस फ़िल्म के ट्रेलर को देख कर आपको जितनी उम्मीद हुई होगी वो सारी उम्मीद फ़िल्म शुरू होने के लगभग बीस मिनट में ख़त्म सी होने लगती है। उसके बाद धीरे धीरे फ़िल्म की बोरियत से आपकी आँखों के आगे अँधेरा छाने लगता है शायद यही निर्देशक की तरफ से बत्ती गुल का मतलब था  और फिर जब आपको एहसास होता है के अब आप पूरे दो घंटे और बोर होने वाले हैं तो आपकी आँखों से जो आँसूंओं की धार निकलती है शायद उसी से निर्देशक का मतलब मीटर चालू था।

लगभग पौने दो घंटे की इस फ़िल्म में थोड़ा बहुत भी मनोरंजन नही है।  कुछ एक आध संवाद अच्छे हैं और तीनों मुख्य कलाकारों ने अच्छा अभिनय किया है। अगर आपने ट्रेलर देखा है तो समझ लीजिये के जितनी फ़िल्म है वो देख ली है।

फ़िल्म में कोर्ट के दृश्य अंत में एकदम स्तरहीन है और मज़ाकिया कम फूहड़ ज़्यादा हैं। फ़िल्म की कहानी जितनी अच्छी हो सकती थी उससे कहीं ज़्यादा फ़िल्म घटिया बनी है।

फ़िल्म में प्रेम त्रिकोण ठूंसा गया है , अदालत की लड़ाई ठूंसी गयी है और कॉमेडी भी ठूंसने की कोशिश की गयी है बस निर्देशक निर्देशन करना भूल गए। इस फ़िल्म को आप अगर न देखें तो आप अपना समय और पैसा बचने वाले समझदार कहलायेंगे और अगर आप इस समीक्षा को पढ़ के भी फ़िल्म देखते हैं तो आप को कम से कम दानवीर तो कहा ही जा सकता है।

मेरी रेटिंग एक स्टार

Video Review of Batti Gul Meter chalu

The success of Stree indicate the changing trends of Bollywood !

There was a time not so long ago. By the way that time is not yet gone totally when Bollywood makers would focus making cinema in a camp based manner. Certain directors and production houses would have certain favourite actors.  The story would come in later. A lot many character actors would also be the regular team.

The multiplex audiences as we call them are slowly forcing a change in that system. Today you do not have just camp based cinematic efforts. There have many such instances of box office smashers but Stree is one of the biggest examples of this concept based cinema now taking firm roots. As these lines are being written Stree is all set to breach the 100 crore mark. This is the second concept base movie in the last few years to cross that line with a not so well known box office pulling stars in it. The last time that breach happened was with Hindi Medium which had Irfan in it. Veerey Di Wedding could have taken that mantle but unfortunately it had one heavy duty star in it called Kareena Kapoor  so while it still does have a healthy claim to a concept based movie working we cannot but deny that Kareena’s presence would have brought in some crowds. You might also note that VDW did not touch 100 crores.

Stree has a very weak star cast. Shraddha Kapoor is its biggest star and she has been out of box office favour for some time now. Add the fact that the plot moves reasonably on her presence. Yet Stree has worked with names like Rakumar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi. Frankly I had to google search to find names of certain other actors in the movie after I saw the movie.

The success of Stree is notable when other hyped movies from bigger production house have fallen like nine pins around it. Alongside Stree was a bigger name Yamla Pagla Deewana which had two or our biggest heavy duty stars till date – Dharmendra and Sunny Deol. The movie crashed because it had zero regards for a story or concept. Those who saw Yamla Pagla Deewana loved Stree more and those who saw Yamla Pagla Deewana after Stree probably went back to watch Stree again.

Stree’s numbers are remarkable because horror as a genre has not been a money minting genre in India and you would only blame directors who keep repeating the same story lines across same movies which are even called the same like Raaz one two three and reloaded.  Stree did not have a remarkably great horror story either but it was conceptualized in a small town environment and balanced with a love story.

The biggest example that audiences will buy concepts big time are many.  Aamir and Akshay are driving their career simply on concept base cinema. Rajkumar Hirani has driven big money at box office just on this. In short these stars and director have caught on the audience pulse which is concept based now.

Talking of the biggie 2.0 which is around the corner and you will find a director’s hard enough effort to push a concept to us.  The fact that trailers of movies like Patakha and Love Sonia are creating buzz and views on internet is because audiences are fed up with the release on 5000 screens two line plot movies.

You have stars who are now trying to latch on to this new trend and redefine themselves therefore you see a Vidya Balan in a Tumhari Sulu a Deepika Padukone in Piku. Audiences loved these movies because yet again these were beautiful concepts delivered with conviction.

Concept based cinema has also debunked the myth of audiences not interested in cinema watching beyond weekends. Stree has worked its numbers steadily on weekdays too. Compare this with how some heavy duty superstar garbage content which was pushed to us in 3D versions too have crashed at box office in recent times.

The last and not least for sure contribution of this concept based cinema is that it is pulling the rug from the feet of our arrogant stars who release solo movies across screens on major weekends and leave us with no choice but to go through the below average content that they dish out. Concept cinema is pulling away the audiences and cracking their monopoly. Well done.