Happy New Year - Iss Diwali Sirf Box Office Ki Hi Taale Todenge Yeh Indiawaale, Dil Nahi Jeetenge !!!

STORY - 

Charlie (original name Chandra Mohan Sharma, don't ask!!!) is planning to avenge his father's death by taking revenge on Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff). He gathers his own team of losers, as he keeps re-iterating throughout their introduction to execute his revenge by stealing precious diamonds. But in order to steal the diamonds, the team has to first participate in World Dance Championship, which would smoothen their master plan. As the team of losers are filled with bad dancers, they hire a dance teacher Mohini (Deepika Padukone) to help them get in the WDC. How these losers succeed in their mission of stealing the diamonds from world's safest locker forms the rest of the story.

PERFORMANCES - 

Shah Rukh Khan leads the pack effectively. He shows off his chiseled body - the ABS & showcases his lover boy image throughout the film with enough spreading of arms & dimples. There is nothing in the role offered to him & is no match for his caliber. But he definitely saves the film from sinking.

Deepika Padukone is good & provides an honest performance. Like in Chennai Express, here too she succeeds in modulating her accent. She has a couple of scenes & a song to shine. Sadly, Lovely is not the song I'm talking about despite it being her solo song.

Abhishek Bachchan as Nandu Bhide is funny. The characterization is very inconsistent but he gets to mouth some funny dialogues & provides a lot of comic relief especially during the heist scenes. Sadly, he also gets a few worst scenes too. And he has a double role too which again doesn't has much to speak about.

Boman Irani impresses as a Parsi. Nothing new from his role but his comic timing does the trick. Sonu Sood is good in first half but he's totally wasted in the second half. Vivaan Shah is noticeable in between this star cast. But he looks clueless throughout. Jackie Shroff is again wasted.

DIRECTION & SCREENPLAY -

What lets the movie down is the bad direction & terrible screenplay. The writers have come up with such a confused screenplay that it ends up trying way too hard. The heist scenes are not exciting at all, the entire WDC part comes out bland & it was never expected from Farah Khan. The story talks about a team of losers, just because they're losers doesn't mean they'll act like clowns & buffoonery is delivered in the name of comedy. The team of losers, acting as underdogs stealing the diamonds, avenging the death of Anupam Kher & eventually winning WDC with actual "DANCING" would've made sense. But what we get to see is a team of losers, acting like buffoons, stealing the diamonds so easily like stealing candy from a baby & with all the terrible dancing skills, they end up winning the World Dance Championship. To their support, not once the audience get to know how tough the championship. Even the no.1 team, Koreans are so average dancers that instead of dancing they're used for one action scene in the 2nd half. So with such competitors, it's not bad on the part of audience to think any Tom, Dick & Harry can win the WDC.

Farah Khan has failed in the direction part, but atleast I expected her to do justice to the DANCE parts, something which we know for sure that she can never go wrong. But she was hellbent on proving us wrong.

TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT -

The visuals... the cinematography gets full marks. It's a treat for eyes & the movie looks super grand on screen. The music by Vishal & Shekhar is disappointing. Except for Manwa Laage nothing else works. Even IndiaWaale disappoints due to ordinary choreography. Lovely doesn't set anything on fire either. Dance Like Chammiya is completely wasted. The climax World Dance Medley, impressed a bit but it's far from believing a performance like that would be worthy of winning the championship. Nonsense Ki Night & it's picturization is passable. Dialogues work only in parts, not all dialogues are funny. And editing, well the movie is 3 hours long, it's self-explainatory.

POSITIVES - 

1. Shah Rukh Khan
2. The performances by other star cast, they try really hard to elevate the scenes to a certain level.
3. The first half is very much watchable due to some funny lines. The Chak De India reference is funny & Deepika pulls it off well.
4. Manwa Laage is really good.
5. The grand look of HNY. It's money well spent.
6. The Cameos - watch out for AbRam Khan & Farah Khan's triplets. They're worth your money.

NEGATIVES -

1. Very poor story & screenplay.
2. Indiawaale in the end steals the diamonds as well as wins the WDC. If you look at it, they were thieves who stole (which can be forgiven as they were "Avenging") but they're the winners of WDC, something they won by cheating. They blackmailed the judges with an MMS, they rigged the voting... They danced terribly (minus Deepika's Mohini) & the only good thing they did was to save the Korean kid on stage. That got them a special entry to the finals & suddenly one long performance to save the "IZZAT" of India, that they ended up as champions. What were the writers thinking?
3. The writers again are so confused that, once they've the cast ready to avenge, the next moment they're acting like buffoons, they get emotional, they get serious & after stealing the diamonds, they suddenly get all patriotic. Why? Just because they're IndiaWaale.
4. Remember you've paid for the ticket & you get to see Junior B vomit over & over again. And if that's not enough, you get to see him taste his own vomit. How creative?!
5. The songs don't work except for Manwa Laage.
6. Only Srk can say "breast-taking & love your booty" to a girl & have her fall head over heels. But to what extent will you take him? Plus over use of Madar.... Chod Na Yaar. It's not funny, it's sick.
7. The movie is way too long. It's ridiculously long.

My Rating - 2/5 (1 for Srk, 0.5 for the rest of the cast & 0.5 for the cutie AbRam Khan, also Farah's triplets.)

Final Word - Iss Diwali Sirf Box Office Ki Hi Taale Todenge Yeh Indiawaale, Dil Nahi Jeetenge.

Shah Rukh Khan deserves better, way better. Even if a movie wastes his talent is not a bad thing, what's worse is when a movie mocks his talent. He has achieved a lot & he has proved a lot in his 2 decade career, so a movie like HNY is definitely not needed at all. Here's an actor with a box office potential of earning you never heard before figures, all you've to do is use him the right way. You've only one Shah Rukh Khan & it's time to realize it.

Kaththi - A Real Diwali Treat from A.R.Murugadoss.

Story -

The script revolves around the Vijay Duo - one a social activist fighting for a cause named Jeevanandham & the other an intelligent thief named Kathiresan aka Kaththi. Kaththi is on the run after escaping from jail, comes across an attempted murder where the victim is none other than Jeevanandham. Kaththi in order to escape from Police switches his identity, while Jeevanandham is imprisoned, Kaththi steps in Jeevanandham's shoes to escape. How Jeevanandham escapes from the prison, What changes Kaththi? Will Jeevanandham succeed in his fight against the MNC & it's owner, played by super talented Neil Nitin Mukesh forms the rest of the story.

Performances - 

Vijay has done a terrific job in handling both the characters. While he underplays the character of Jeevanandham, he shines in the role of Kaththi. The entire film rides on this character & Vijay with his mannerisms lives the character. Samantha Ruth Prabhu is there only for the songs. Neil Nitin Mukesh is superb as the villain. He's shown inferior to Vijay's Kaththi character but then that's because of the characterization. His expressions gets full marks. Sathish playing Vijay's friend is funny but it's not a character that's totally brainless as we usually see in big commercial films.

Direction, Screenplay & Dialogues -

A.R. Murugadoss is a magician. Making a commercial film out of a social cause is possible only by him now. He makes a cameo in the second half, hats off to him for the idea behind the entire second half. The only glitch is the initial loopholes but they're overcome by the strong script, performances & ARM's direction.

And now for the real deal, DIALOGUES. A.R.Murugadoss deserves an award for his dialogues. They're so powerful & yet meaningful is simply fantastic. Let me share few masterstrokes...

> When Vijay explains Communism as "After we eat our share of food, whatever is left belongs to the next person is called Communism".

> When Vijay bangs "Vijay Mallya" without even taking his name "A beer factory owner takes a loan of 5000 crores & says he'll not the pay it back. Neither the owner committed suicide nor the banks that loaned him commit suicide. A farmer takes 5000rs loan & he's forced to commit suicide"

> And then the next masterstroke "We even need our condoms in strawberry flavor and our poor children can only dream of ever eating a strawberry in their life".

Technical Department -

Technically Kaththi is brilliant, first I have to salute the cinematographer George C.Williams for his outstanding visuals throughout. The 360 degree shot in the pipe which was shown in the teaser is mindblowing. The music from Anirudh is chartbuster written all over it but what needs the special mention is the Background Music which is clearly the best of this year. Next, the action... wow every single one of them clap-worthy & whistle worthy. This is how it's done, the pre-interval fight & the climax fight, Anl Arasu take a bow man.

Positives - 

1. The strong story & especially the hard hitting scenes.

2. Vijay's performance throughout.

3. The coin fight scene. I am darn sure everyone will copy it in the future. The entire strategy of turning off the lights & just turning it on for a second when Vijay flips a coin, just enough to beat the hell out of the bad guys. Nobody can simply sit & watch the scene. People in my screen were jumping from their seats throughout.

4. The entire flashback, introducing Vijay's Jeevanandham character in the first half itself. Weak hearted will shed tears for sure. It's such heart wrenching looking at the fate of all those poor villagers.

5. The best scene of this year.. The entire taking over of the water supply to Chennai by Vijay & his team of old men. The idea itself needs the applause. The entire 15mins was met with non-stop cheers.

6. Effectively showing the true face of our media who are just hungry for news & nothing else.

7. The climax fight, completely filmy but nevertheless thoroughly entertaining. Especially Vijay & Neil Nitin Mukesh's facial expressions.

8. The background music by Anirudh & the strong dialoues backed by superb visuals.

Negatives -

1. The film takes the same liberties as every double role film. It hampers the film initially only.

2. Samantha's character is only there for the songs. Thankfully there are only 3 songs.

3. The initial 10-15 mins seems to put logic in the backseat. But thankfully after that Kaththi teams takes us all for a stormy ride.

My Rating - 3.5/5 (Would've been 4 if it was not for those cinematic liberties taken.)

Final Word - Kaththi is pure mass as well as class film, a real Diwali Treat. A.R.Murugadoss shows how it's done.

BANG BANG - It does BANG but falls short of BANG BANG.

REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN  SOME SPOILERS DESPITE ALL THE EFFORT

Bang Bang is an official remake of Knight And Day, so I will not dwell much into the story in detail.

Movie -

The first half has it's share of blemishes where the movie drags but whenever Hrithik enters the screens you'll know it's going to be Bang Bang time. The humor in the first half is subtle, some silly but will definitely generate laughs for most of the time. The comedy scenes with the Bank's Vice President is funny while the humor between Javed Jaffrey & his henchman will definitely tickle your funny bones & above that the funny conversation between Katrina & Hrithik works well too. The songs here does work but Uff despite being a nice song seems out of the place in this action movie as there isn't much scope for a dream song. Nevertheless it's nice watching Hrithik-Katrina pair in that song but all it does is to add on to the screen time. The action scenes are top notch & these are the ones that keep the hopes alive, of course in terms of screenplay. As for the movie goes, Hrithik Roshan's performance does that job effective.

The second half loses it's pace quite often than compared to the first half. The movie keeps getting more predictable where the screenplay works on the tried & tested formula of showing Hrithik-Katrina's romantic moments clubbed with their humorous conversation until an action scene shows up. The screenplay seems hurried in places & due to predictability the Jimmy Shergill connection explained in the second half loses it's impact. But then, there's Hrithik Roshan with his fiery performance to lift the film along with Katrina Kaif providing the oomph factor. And here again, the action sequences does the trick. More crisp editing would've definitely helped in making those stunts look more effective. Danny's role is weakly written & it shows on screen where he gets very little to perform.

Performances -

Hrithik Roshan gets full marks. He steals the show right from his introduction scene till the after credits title track. He carries the film firmly on his shoulder. Be it his abs, his stunts, his romantic side, his funny side, his serious side as well as his crazy side, he gets it perfect in BANG BANG Style.

Katrina Kaif gets it right towards the second half since all he has to do is look glamorous & provide good amount of humor, during the action scenes in the first half & of course during the climax scenes. Other than that she comfortably hams her way through. Javed Jaffrey is good but gets limited scope & same goes to Danny Denzongpa. Jimmy Shergill appears in a special appearance & he performs as per requirement. Pavan Malhotra is first rate. The actress who played Katrina's grandmother looked monotonous. Deepti Naval is hardly there.

Technical Department -

Two words, Simply Awesome. The huge budget of the film is well justified. The only scene where there was slight complaint from my side was in the race car chase sequence, better detailed vfx effects would've been more effective in that scene, nevertheless it's way too small a glitch to whine about. The songs on screen works well, I had a complaint regarding Uff song despite it being good only because I was not happy having a dream song in a movie like this, otherwise watching Kat & Hrithik in that song is worth it. Choreography, well it's Hrithik & Katrina dancing, no more words required to describe it. Screenplay was weak & inconsistent.

Plusses -
1. Hrithik Roshan. You paid to see him, he gives it all & yes worth every single penny you've spent.
2. The technical aspects of the movie are top notch.
3. High production values are a treat to watch on big screen, especially the exotic locales.

Minuses -
1. A remake of a weaker script doesn't make the remake any better. The main problem with Knight And Day was it's second half which was extremely predictable. The main problem with Bang Bang too ironically is the second half.
2. The very first scene where Jimmy Shergill's character is introduced, you know what to expect. So you don't have to wait till the connection to be revealed in the second half to know it. Whatever changes the makers have made to cater to the Desi audience looks too predictable & nothing better than ordinary in terms of the screenplay.
3. The first 30mins in the first half drags. The Katrina & her grandmother's scenes are monotonous. Up until Hrithik's first encounter in Shimla, nothing much happens on the screen.
4. Carrying on from the point 3, in Knight And Day Cameron Diaz gets involved in the mess on her own without knowing & Tom Cruise warns her not to get on the plane but he's not the one to get her involved. What doesn't work in Bang Bang is, Hrithik Roshan is shown to be blown away by Katrina's looks & he voluntarily goes to her, falling for her thus he's the one to get her involved in the mess which was needless in the first place. Considering his mission, it doesn't justify at all. The writers could've come up with something better for Hrithik-Katrina's first meeting & then they could've followed it up with the restaurant scene.


Final Words - It does BANG but falls short of BANG BANG

My Rating - 3/5 (For the efforts, the first half is far more entertaining but it's the second half that gives it away.)