Dishoom - Varun Dhawan shines in an highly forgettable film.

Story -

Indian cricket team's top batsman Viraj Sharma (Saqib Saleem) is kidnapped before the final match against Pakistan. The Foreign ministry assigns this case to Kabir (John Abraham) who flied down to Dubai to solve the case & he finds a partner in the form of Junaid (Varun Dhawan), a rookie cop in Dubai who is yet to solve his first case. They've 36 hours to save Viraj Sharma. Without any clue about who has kidnapped him or where is he being held, the task is near to impossible. How will the duo achieve their mission? How Ishita (Jacqueline Fernandez) helps them out, forms rest of the story.

Movie -

Rohit Dhawan follows the old template of every buddy cop movies ever made. He sticks to the basics throughout. The initial reel introduces Viraj Sharma & his whole kidnapping episode is established as a mystery. John Abraham's Kabir is a hot headed, no non-sense cop & his introduction scene showcases exactly that. Then there is Junaid who is a rookie cop with a sole purpose of providing comic relief & with the film's given script, it's up to him to carry the whole film. The pace here is good & the entire first half is passable with quite a few entertaining moments, thanks to Junaid's character & one surprise cameo. Before the pre-interval, the main twist is revealed with the entry of Wagah (Akshaye Khanna) & the first half  does end on a high note.

Post interval, the writers have completely given up on the screenplay. Since they played all the major cards (twists) in the first half itself, the focus is mainly on the visuals, action scenes that are lavishly shot & an unnecessary item song that just tests your patience. Again the sole positive aspect of the second half is Junaid's character & Varun tries his best to salvage whatever's left. With no twists around, Akshaye Khanna's Wagah becomes a cardboard one dimensional character that suffers from bad writing. As seen in every buddy cop movie, this ends with the usual cliche filled pre-climax & climax, offering literally nothing. Second half is a huge letdown. And in the pre-climax we get Saare Jahan Se Achcha out of nowhere.

Positives -
1. Varun Dhawan & his energy. Ofcourse his honest performance.
2. Akshay Kumar is a riot as a gay person.
3. Phone conversation between Varun Dhawan & Satish Kaushik.
4. The entire episode pre-interval with Akshaye Khanna.
5. The chase sequence with Rahul Dev is perfectly done.

Negatives - 
1. Poor writing that results in lacklustre second half.
2. Bad music. Pritam sir, what have you done? The opening credits song doesn't matter but Sau Tarah Ke & especially Jaaneman Aah in the end credits is unbearable.
3. Akshaye Khanna's character suffers the most due to poor writing in second half.
4. John Abraham looks disinterested throughout the movie. He has exactly 1 expression for the whole movie. It's supposed to be a 2 hero movie & one of them isn't contributing at all.
5. Forced patriotism. Be it Viraj's dialogue about desh se gaddari nahi karna or towards the end forcefully playing Saare Jahan Se Achcha in the background makes no sense. Stick to the template, why force feed something that too patriotism like this?

Performances - 

Varun Dhawan is at his goofiest best. He has no problem in being portrayed as a loser as you get to hear villains say "Isko (Kabir) 4 goli maarna & yeh (Junaid) toh lagta hai goli ke awaaz sunn ke hi mar jayega". His comic timing is  impeccable & he carries the entire film on his shoulders.

John Abraham struggles. One wishes for him to lend some support to Varun Dhawan. He should've at least try to take inspiration from the recent Ride Along series if not the Lethal Weapon & others.

Akshaye Khanna... well it's always nice to see such a fine actor on the big screen. I for one, surely had missed him. But his characterisation is at fault, so he gets very limited scope. The mediocrity towards the end actually impacts his character badly.

Jacqueline Fernandez has a short role but she gets to show her legs errr dancing skills in one song. Nargis Fakhri is a special appearance gets to walk in a bikini in slow-motion so that Varun Dhawan can stare at her for comic relief. Saqib Saleem is good. Rahul Dev is another actor who is fun to watch in a Hindi film. He doesn't get much to perform but is part of the nicely shot chase sequence. Satish Kaushik lends his voice but those scenes are hilarious. And there's special appearance from few cricketers right from Mohinder Amarnath to Ramiz Raja.

And of course Akshay Kumar. He's the best thing audience can take home in this movie. He has no problem playing the gay person & the result is a laugh riot.

My Rating - 2/5

Final Words - Varun Dhawan tries his best to save this forgettable film with some help from Akshay Kumar for 5 minutes.

Salman Khan - The real King Khan at single screens.

I've always been fascinated by Salman Khan's fan following among the masses. Being his hardcore fan, it has become a tradition for me to watch his films more than once. I tend to mix it up by watching it first at a multiplex where I'm extremely comfortable & then follow it up with a single screen experience where honestly I'm not that comfortable with the kind of audience I've to share those 3 hours time.

Salman Khan is an experience. Multiplex audience can never give me the sort of experience I get from single screen audience. Yes, Salman Khan is a huge crowd puller and definitely multiplex audience whistle, hoot, scream & occasionally danced too (interestingly dancing happened only during Jai Ho). But from what I've seen, they just come to enjoy the movie & of course the Megastar. In single screen however, the audience come to celebrate Salman Khan & his movies. Everything else is additional. That's exactly what differentiates those two movie viewing experience. That's why every EID, I witness double celebration.

Like I said, most of the times I'm not comfortable with the kind of audience I get in single screens, they get over-excited every time. I don't get to hear a single word for almost 20-25 mins until they settle down on their own. The celebrations are always at the extreme for those initial minutes. I can't stand smokers too. But all this is a small price worth paying to be a witness to my favourite literally get worshipped by hundreds of audience.

All the madness, no matter how many times they get beaten up by the cops or get scoldings for causing traffic jam or for getting too noisy, it refuses to reduce. I said I'm a fan but I've never been part of a fan club. Again, just to witness those same gang of boys invest themselves to decorate all the posters with garlands, get their own hoardings, risking themselves to climb that wall with a low quality ladder... all of that for one person whom they love, Salman Khan.

If given a chance, honestly I wouldn't do those stuff. I never learned to whistle myself, one of the reason why I enjoy other people whistling for Salman Khan. I can pretend to be worried for those guys safety whenever they climb up the ladder or play with firecrackers, but let me be honest... the moment they start enjoying & infect the whole atmosphere where rest of the people start to encourage / enjoy the whole show, more often I've found myself to be part of the rest of the people & enjoy the whole fan-giri. I might not be willing to do those stuff, but I've always seen myself at the opposite end of the road either filming them or clicking photos, getting mesmerised by the shear madness. In the end, seeing so many smiling faces who all are unrelated yet connected by one person, is the best part of the whole thing.

Having such a command over his giant fan following, I will admit that I'm extremely happy with his choice of films off late. I was terribly bored during Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, but I would any day prefer him preaching family values via Rajshri style than singing Main Kutta hoon, tu meri kuttiya hai in Ready.

SULTAN is a winner.

STORY -

Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) & Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) are local wrestlers who dream of representing India at the Olympics. Love blossoms between the two and they get married. What happens when two people have their dreams & aspirations get intertwined with each other? What are the sacrifices they need to make to walk the path of glory? Both life & the sport itself provides them with second chances & how they fight back with all they have got, forms the entire film. After all, Wrestling is not a sport, it's about fighting what lies within...

MOVIE - 

Akash Oberoi (Amit Sadh) is running a failed pro-wrestling league. With sponsors threatening to pullback from the championship, he's advised to get an Indian wrestler to participate in the championship by his father. Once a world champion, an Olympic gold medallist Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) is suggested to be the right wrestler. When Akash visits Sultan, he's in for a surprise. Sultan has given up wrestling, he is out of shape & is not at all interested to enter the ring ever. Failing to convince Sultan, Akash looks up to his friend Govind who takes him through the story of Sultan. The first half completely relies on the love story between Sultan & Aarfa. A careless 30-something guy Sultan finds his motivation in Aarfa & decides to become a wrestler to earn respect in her eyes. To prove her that he's not the "Shit guy" she thinks him to be. While achieving all this, he forgets to realise the sacrifices others are making for him to succeed. He wins the championship but loses in life. A personal tragedy pushes him to the pit of guilt which he struggles to come out off.

Akash Oberoi offers Sultan a second chance to redeem himself. He lost everything due to wrestling so a chance to win everything back through wrestling itself. But this time, it's not the same sport Sultan is trained at. He has six weeks to train himself to take on that second opportunity. For others, it's just a championship but for Sultan, it's a battle to win back the respect he lost, win back the love of his life & defeat the demon Sultan in him who caused all the pain. Enter Randeep Hooda in a special appearance who accepts to train Sultan on time. Rest is how Sultan overcomes all the challenges in the form of various wrestlers & the final match which is the match of his lifetime where his opponent is none other than himself.

The first half is well handled in establishing the love story. It's very simple at heart, some of the dialogues reflect the actual reality & hits you hard. Also the humour is consistent. The pace is moderate here. It's the second half where the pace drops as the concentration shifts towards the pro-wrestling league. Action is handled well & second half doesn't has too many unnecessary melodramatic scenes which works very well for the film. The film doesn't show Salman Khan in the same image as his previous releases. Here, his character is at fault & he's shown paying the price for his mistakes. It's up to the audience to receive such honest portrayal of his character.

Performances -

Salman Khan has come up with a bravura performance. He's dedicated & lives the character. Anushka Sharma as Aarfa is equally terrific. She has got a strong character & she does full justice. Randeep Hooda in a special appearance is first rate. Amit Sadh as Akash Oberoi is good. Anant Sharma as Sultan's friend Govind is very good.

Positives -
1. Salman Khan at his best.
2. Very touching love story between the lead characters. Also Salman & Anushka compliment each other very well. Even if Sultan is about Salman Khan, Anushka's role isn't any lesser to him.
3. The scene where Salman Khan breaks down in front of a mirror.
4. The hospital scene, both at interval & towards the end. While Anushka shines in the interval scene, the second scene has both of them competing equally.
5. The MMA fight sequences are very well handled.
6. The humour is consistent throughout & most of them succeed in making us laugh.
7. Watch out for Suzi. Jag Ghoomeya is magical on screen.

Negatives -
1. The film is a sports drama with more emphasis on the love story. You'll be disappointed if you enter expecting an hardcore action film.
2. Main wrestling tournaments in the first half are all shown in one song & also some of the pro-wrestling matches too get wrapped up in one song. For example - we just get to witness Sultan directly winning a gold medal at Olympics without any scenes showing the matches that led him to reach the final.
3. Since the focus is more on the drama, the pace will seem slow.
4. The story is predictable.

My Rating - 3.5/5 (As a fan a 4/5 for Salman Khan's bravura performance.)

Final Word - Sultan is a winner.

Raman Raghav 2.0 - Nawazuddin Siddiqui shines in a weak, sick & utterly disgusting movie.

Story - 

This is NOT the story of the real Raman Raghav. This is a film set in contemporary times as the character is heavily inspired by the original serial killer. It's about Ramanna aka Raman (Nawazudding Siddiqui) finding his successor in the form of Raghav (Vicky Kaushal) ergo the title Raman Raghav 2.0.

Movie -

Anurag Kashyap & his co-writer are highly ambitious. The story is told in the form of chapters, an interesting way to narrate. Yes let me put it right away, the story they've in hand is not interesting. All the problem is with the writing. The attempt is solely on creating shock, disgust feeling, that the script takes the back seat completely & apart from Nawaz every other character is badly written.

The moment Raman surrenders & starts narrating, we the audience believe him completely. We totally agree that he's a psychopath who has no remorse in killing & we believe the way he justifies all his murders. His dialogues are top notch, though the analogy he makes for his murders is outright crazy, it goes down perfectly well with his character. The attempt is to establish what kind of a psychopath serial killer he is & we are convinced. The problem is with Raghav's character. He's a bad cop who is a drug addict. Apart from this, no other explanation is provided. We know why Raman is a psychopath but just because Raghav is a drug addict we're supposed to believe he's similar to Raman.

The story's pace is worse than snail walking & it only makes it worse. Songs don't help at all. Yes the story is divided into eight chapters, true. But the purpose of those eight chapters is to prove two things - shock the viewers with those ghastly scenes & to show how Raghav transforms into the psychopath, Raman wants him to be. It's the second thing that's not achieved. In one scene, Raman tells he never killed anyone by accident. The writers forget to show Raghav's character that way. He's just a drug addict, who acts crazy. The one acceptable reasoning comes way towards the end & it's too late by then as none of Raghav's acts are justified & no way they can be termed as psychotic.

What makes the movie disgusting is the writers crossing the line just to create shock. The chapter involving sister, yes it had terrific acting, the actors did complete justice, all that is fine. But to what level will you stoop down to just to create the sense of disgust & shock. Raman mouthing those disturbing disgusting lines explaining how he used to rape his sister to his brother-in-law in front of their kid is not something acceptable. No, a brother boasting about how he's thankful for not impregnating his sister isn't remotely necessary. After all the shocking revelations, the sister offering the brother to have sex with her in order to save her husband & child is a BIG NO. There are plenty of movies that has handled incest, spoken about inbreeding etc... never came across such disgusting scenes ever. Extremely cringe-worthy & the writers could've achieved the same in a different way. The original Raman Raghav did rape & murder his sister, we know, but there's a proper way to show even a ghastly thing like that.

Performances -

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is terrifying & lives the character of Ramanna aka Raman. He's the sole saviour of this debacle. Vicky Kaushal has the screen presence but his act is so one-dimensional that the weak characterization just doesn't give him any chance. With the movie titled Raman Raghav, it's indeed a blow to the movie itself with Raghav being a weak character.

Sobhita Dhulipala is good but again weak characterisation just shows her to be a helpless woman being used as a sex object by Raghav. She's shown to be too weak to break off the relationship despite 3 abortions.

Amruta Subhash is honestly very natural as the sister. But that whole chapter is so disgusting, we just wish the writers to have come up with a better treatment to the ordeal her character goes through.

My Rating - 1.5/5

Final Words - Nawazuddin Siddiqui shines in a weak, sick & utterly disgusting movie.

CBFC, take a bow for just reducing the sex scene by 50% yet allowing everything else. Seriously how worse can you get?

Independence Day: Resurgence - Thankfully it warns us right away about the third film.

Story -

Back in 1996, an alien race decided to attack Earth, basically all the monuments which the vfx team could afford so that The United States of America like always step up to save the world. 20 years later, the aliens are back & human race i.e. the defence forces of The United States of America have to fight back again. Of course July 4th is the date of battle to justify the title.

Movie -

Director Roland Emmerich plays it safe from the word go. He has the budget & like we've seen in all his previous disaster films, he doesn't try anything new but opts to rehash the same thing over & over again by attacking the same buildings over & over again, with The United States of America fighting back over & over again, only thing is the technology supporting him big time. But this time the speech comes nowhere closer to the epic President speech in the 1996 film.

This is a typical Roland Emmerich film, filled with cheesy moments & cheesy dialogues throughout. It follows the same pattern as the 1996 film, giving literally no time for any character development. We have the recurring characters from the 1996 version whom we're familiar with & then we have a bunch of new characters whom we don't build any sort of bond to care. Will Smith isn't part of the cast & there's nothing that the movie offers to miss him or not miss him.

Towards the end, they're so out of ideas that they insert a never seen before mother alien chasing down a school bus driven by Jeff Goldblum filled with kids & his dad. Never seen before as King Kong never chased down a car, Godzilla never chased down a cab, T-Rex again never chased down a car & mother alien never chased down Ripley in Aliens. It's a never seen before scene because of all the vfx & this being in 3D. Does this save us from boredom? Not even a little.

Performances -

There's nothing to boast about. All characters go through the dialogues mechanically blurting out space terms now & then otherwise filled with extremely cheesy lines. It is good to see the recurring characters, not to lie about that. But there's nothing for them to do, neither focus is made to explore about what happened to them in 20 years. There's an alien attack & then there's another alien race that calls us humans as primitive yet with all the sophisticated technology, the alien just acts like a dumb animal chasing down a school bus.

Technical Department -

The vfx is first rate. That's the only saving grace or to say that's the only thing the makers invested in. Wish they had invested little bit on the script. Well there are scenes in outer space so the 3D isn't really worth completely complaining as it has something to offer. But let me complain anyways as it's just robbing us off the extra money we pay for the glasses. Anyhoo, lesser monuments are destroyed this time. Wonder what we Indians did as no Taj Mahal or Gateway of India was considered worthy of destruction.

My Rating - 1.5/5

Final Words - Meh.

And yes the film's ending does imply there'll be a third film. Warning received.

Udta Punjab - Second Act Di Maa Di.

Story - 
Punjab is cursed with drugs problem as 70% of the youth are drug addicts. This issue is highlighted through 4 main characters, Tommy Singh (Shahid Kapoor) a rock star cum drug addict, a Bihari labourer in Punjab played by Alia Bhatt, Sartaj Singh (Diljit Dosanjh) a corrupt cop & a concerned doctor Preet Sahni (Kareena Kapoor Khan). How these characters get caught up in this war on drugs & how their stories get interlinked is the film.

Movie - 
First of all, Udta Punjab doesn't glorify drugs. Yes, the film does glorify abuses but that just serves as mirror to the actual reality. First act is solid as all the 4 main characters are established perfectly. Tommy Singh is a rock star currently going through a professional crisis due to his drug addiction. The way he is careless about the world or his life for that matter & so heavily dependent on drugs to find any sort of stability is perfectly handled. Alia Bhatt, the innocent Bihari labourer unknowingly invites trouble which ends in devastating result of her getting kidnapped by the drug mafia & held captive to be used by the gang as well as corrupt cops is heartbreaking to the core. Also Sartaj Singh's change of heart after going through a personal tragedy & the righteous Dr. Preet Sahni declaring war on drugs, the first half literally ends on a super high note with the director completely in control of his story. Special mention to the prison scene where Tommy Singh realises how carelessly he had become a worst role model to the youngsters.

It's the second half where the director decides to make it more filmy. Unlike the first half which was dark, brutal & realistic, the second half chooses the easy route by adding too much of filmy moments, a forced romantic track spoiling the flow as well as messing up the characterisation of the main leads. It's here where the romantic overtone between Sartaj & Preet looks dragged. Sartaj's character acting like the righteous cop becomes monotonous. The focus shifts on Tommy Singh & Alia Bhatt's Bihari character where the director uses humour a bit too much, diluting the impact the film had till then. A drug addict like Tommy Singh gets over the addiction just because he saw a girl & listened to her horrible story, is way too hard to believe. Even Alia's character is shown going through the hard ways to fight off her addiction. Since the focus is on entertainment, it's Tommy Singh's character who provides it, despite the dark theme & this part comes out as odd.

Anyways, the director once again takes back control over the script in the final act. Humour continues to find it's way amidst all the brutality but by now we're way too familiar with the characters so the focus is on what happens to these characters instead of the larger issue i.e. drug problem which the trailer had promised to focus on. Considering that, it can be termed as an abrupt ending where no solution is provided to the problem. If the director had not forcefully tried to insert a romantic angle then this entire final act would've come out much stronger instead what transforms on screen isn't what was expected from it.

Performances - 
Shahid Kapoor shines in his role of Tommy Singh. He gets it right from the very first scene & have to say it, all complaints about second half aside, it gives ample scope for Shahid Kapoor to act & he grabs it. Again special mention to his act in the prison scene.

Alia Bhatt once again rules. She wins over everyone from the word go. Udta Punjab belongs to her. Her character's name is never revealed throughout the film but yes, she does live her character.

Diljit Dosanjh has made a wonderful Bollywood debut. He's in control & very confident. Kareena Kapoor Khan is first-rate. She brings the much needed maturity with perfection.

My Rating - 3/5

Final Words - Second Act Di Maa Di.

The Conjuring 2 - Lives upto the expectations, double the scares & double the chills it is.

Well the prequel was a smashing hit worldwide & given James Wan's stint with horror films, it wasn't a surprise that The Conjuring will find itself  a sequel. The question was, will it live upto the expectations? or will it go down like the Insidious franchise? The difference is due to James Wan himself, who turned producer for those other films, he continues as the director for The Conjuring sequel. Honestly, the one of the best decisions ever.

So Ed & Lorraine have moved onto other cases. This time, they're shown to be investigating the infamous The Amityville Haunting. Considering the numerous films that exist already based on The Amityville Haunting, guess we don't get witness one from The Conjuring franchise (it definitely is turning out to be one.) Anyways, Lorraine encounters a demon which gives her a premonition of her husband's death, which scares the hell out of her. The couple decide they'll put a break to accepting new cases for a while. Just then the church contacts them over a case which the media has termed as "England's Amityville".

After the initial scenes of Ed & Lorraine, the focus shifts to England onto the family of a  mother & her four children. Her husband has left her to another woman & she's trying to pull it through. Just like it's prequel, ample time is given to establish these characters. The kids come off so natural that audience get connected to them instantly. The kids do play with a Ouija board, hoping to talk to a spirit thus inviting the dangerous one. One of the girl gets possessed. Every single one of those scary teases where the kids are toyed with is worth your money. The scares are aplenty. The police wash off their hands & soon the plight of this family turns into a media circus.

While the church doesn't want another hoax to hamper it's reputation & people wanting to desperately prove the family to be reason behind all this fake incidents. The concerned look upto Ed & Lorraine for the help who reluctantly agree. Like Lorraine in the background voice over describes this case to be one of the most haunting ones, you are going to have to watch it to see what's so different about this particular case.

Positives - 
1. The film is filled with too many scary scenes. Worth your money.
2. The performances are top notch. While Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga are in form, the children get all the applause.
3. The main twist is effectively handled which is why this sequel stands tall compared to other Horror film sequels.
4. Patrick Wilson showing his other side as a singer providing us with the best impersonation of Elvis's Can't help falling in love. Amidst all the madness, that particularly stands out.
5. Special mention to the Crooked Man. Watch out for the terrifying scenes involving him.
6. James Wan is in full control. How I wish for him to have directed the Insidious sequel.

Negatives -
1. A couple of ordinary scares are thrown into.
2. Ed & Lorraine's characters get a push only towards the second half when they arrive at England.

My Rating - 3.5/5

Final Words - A Must Watch Horror Sequel.

Couldn't help it,

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.