bollywood movies

Having recently lost his mother, Michael Pinto an innocent, gullible twenty-something  from a small village somewhere in Goa, visits his childhood friend in Mumbai. He does not realize that his friend has moved ahead in life and has buried the childhood warmth, even though he receives him and takes him to his pad much to the chagrin of his wife.  Pinto is left alone in his house while the couple goes to attend a new year’s party. The night turns eventual for many people’s life when Pinto get lost in the city.  So we have a ‘retired’ don, his ex-heroine sweet heart,  his twin assistants, a side kick who wants to eliminate the don, two men fighting over a girl, a gambler and did I miss any other? May be.  And also,  Kalki Kochelin who wants to be a dancer.

That sums up the story plot of My Friend Pinto, c0-produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and directed by his assistant Raaghav Dhar. If you think the story plot has a potential the problem arises with the screenplay and the direction. We all know Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a penchant for theatrical  costumes and performances in his intense movies.  Raaghav Dhar being his assistant has the hang over of it and presents this comedy in a theatrical way, which has a disaster effect in the final watch.  So it is like watching a stage play on screen. It could have been tolerated if it had the proper comedy ingredients that would not yawn us the entire length.

Poor Prateik babbar looks stifled and tries his theatrical best but something just didn’t work well and the drub screenplay does not help either. God only knows why Kalki chose to work on this script, for a talented actress who made a strong impression in off beat movies, My Friend Pinto is neither Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara, a mainstream movie nor an off beat movie which gives her a meaty role. Tsch.

Ginger Chai Verdict: My Friend Pinto is frustrating. There are movies which make two hours seemingly a long, long time and Pinto gives you that feeling.

Raunak Kaul, young passionate, gifted DJ and  musician, comes to Mumbai to pursue his musical career. He finds his groove in Tango Charlie, a nightclub from where his  life takes a fast lane and on a high with fame, adulation, drugs and sex.  However, the fast life  comes to a screeching halt when Raunak starts loosing his hearing power and soon become completely deaf.  So what happens next in the life of Raunak?

How would it be to be a musician and suddenly deprived of to hearing sense ? Ludwig van Beethoven, considered the greatest musician of all time, continued to compose music even after becoming completely deaf. The movie takes inspiration from the legendary composer and even his quotes are highlighted in-between the scenes. Having said this, Soundtrack is an official remake of  2004 Canadian independent movie “It’s All Gone Pete Tong“.  Bollywood has recently taken a penchant for remakes while the mainstream movies are loud remakes of masala entertainer from South India, credit should go to  debutant director Neerav Ghosh to treat us with an official remake of a sensible and meaningful movie which is quiet entertaining as well.

For talented and versatile actor, Rajiv Khandelwal it s a role that would allow him to show different hues of personality. He slowly transforms from an energetic, passionate musician to an eccentric talent who tastes success and gets high on fame, sex and drugs and later gains our sympathy when tragedy strikes and he destiny forces him to fight back the demons within to reinvent himself. To his credit, Rajiv plays the role with ease and in complete control without going over board. Soha Ali Khan as Gauri is endearing, playing a deaf character and steering the life of Raunak. Mohan Kapoor as Charlie, the owner of Tango Charlie Night club,  who parties hard on extremes and acts as God father of Raunak when he discovers his musical talent impresses on screen.

Various real life film personalities like Kailash Kher, DJ Aqueel, Music director Salim, Anu Malik makes appearance as “talking heads” who talk about Raunak adds to the fictional authenticity of the movie and adds a fresh element to the movie.  Since the movie is a musical subject, it is expected to have a good scores and the musical directors Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale have come up with brilliant scores and my pick are “Banao banao” , “Fakira” and “Ek Manzil”

Ginger Chai Verdict:   I would recommend you to watch it.  Feel the music.

Good news is RGV bounces bak with signs of his mercurial best and proves he is  not to be written off yet.  Bad news is inspite of the customary disclaimer stating the movie is not based on any real-life incident and the characters are fictious, almost everyone knows about Neeraj Grover murder case the story is based upon.  But the good news is that inspite of the huge media exposure on the murder case, RGV presents the story in an inimitable style of his own that is grippy, dark and compelling.

So the story begins with Anusha Chawla (Mahie Gill) telling her overwhelmingly in love partner Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) her intention to shift to Mumbai to fancy her chance in showbiz. Half-heartedly, Robin agrees to her wishes and his obsessive love is clear in the parting kisses.  After months of stay in Mumbai and numerous rounds of failed auditions and spurning the casting couches of the industry the hapless girl is desperate to make it big while the lovelorn guy gets impatient and chides her to shut her doors of ambition and return to him. The girl smells sucess in the name of Ashish Bhatnagar (Ajay Gehli) who confirms her a role of heroine in an upcoming movie. The girl is elated as well as the boy friend when he hears the news. But destiny takes a cruel turn, when a night of revelry turns into passion and leads to murder in the bedroom.

The roving camera sees the characters in a stark reality in all their vulnerable emotions and RGV holds his complete control over the flow of script. He is not judgemental over the turn of events and just presents the story as it unfolds without any melodrama and going over the board.  Some of the scenes that unfolds after the murder might give you cold shivers but then when you know the director has only re-created  the events of the real murder case , you get numbed at the thought what a moment of rage can lead one to.  It creeps you out.

Now if the movie is realistic and hard hitting much of the credit should go to the casts. Deepak Dobriyal and Mahie Gill brings out the shades of love and dark side of human nature in an expressively laudable act and Zahir Hussein as the CID officer makes an understated but strong screen presence. The musical score from RGV’s Rangeela has been deftly included. Especially I loved the usage of  the Rangeela lyrics “Itne chehron mein apne chehre ki pehchaan” in the BGM when the girl is arrested. 

GingerChai Verdict: Not A Love Story is  RGV ka Dark Love Story told in his mercurial style and surpsrisingly when you thought RGV is a spent force, he bounces back with a watchable movie.

Once upon a time in Bollywood masala-mass entertainer, with larger than life roles and red-hot dialogues, love and melodrama ruled the box-office cheered and whistled by the front bench crowd of singleplex. Enter  90’s and arrival of  multiplex culture saw movies shot in glossy sets and locales, slapstick comedies,  metro-sexual heroes and  scripts targeting the city and NRI crowd almost made the genre history.  While the southern film industry especially Telugu and Tamil movies propelled by their fleets of superstars took the masala-movie genre to new heights with numerous releases and many becoming blockbusters. Salman Khan with Wanted and Dabaang turned the clock back with his successful mega hits. Rohit Shetty tries to do a Dabaang with Ajay Devgn by remaking the 2010 blockbuster Tamil movie Singam which had Tamil star Surya in the lead.

Baji Rao Singham (Ajay Devgn) is an upright, tough cop much adored, admired and loved in his native, a nondescript small outpost somewhere in the Maharashtra-Goa border.  Life is easy and simple for Singham till destiny brings Jaikand Shikre, a notorious criminal-businessman (Prakash Raj) to the small village and to the police station headed by Singham.  Jaikand Shikre with his often repeated dialogue; Kuch bhi karneka mera ego hurt nai karneka has his brutal way all along till he bumps into the hero-cop and finds his ego hurt.  Snarled, he gets Singham transferred to Goa, his fiefdom and then the fireworks starts with heady and loud dialogues – red hot accompanied with blaring music and at times corny best.  At the hands of Rohit Shetty, the comedy king who gave us Golmaal series, most of the action parts are at its funniest best.  Though Ajay performs gravity defying stunts, you cannot help laughing at some of the dishyooms.

Prakash Raj is at his mercurial best – juggling effortlessly from being a ruthless don to his comedy elements and back to his menacing acts. Tamil and Telugu film-goers know such roles are tailor-made for him and he has an effortless knack for it, having played such baddy roles in many movies.  For Bollywood movie-buffs, he should be a refreshingly good and he never boring. Ajay Devgn has trimmed and toned his body for the role and he is at his macho-best but somehow I feel he is more stiffened and lacks an emotional connect with the audience. Yes, his eyes carry the intensity but the X-factor is amiss.  May be years of mellowed down roles and comedy acts have made the gear shift to the larger than life a bit difficult. Kajal Aggarwal, his love interest in the movie looks out of sync and listless, surprising as she is a top actress in Tollywood. 

The movie partially works. The initial 20 minutes are slow and sheepish and then when the Hero and Villain meets, the firework starts and the movie picks up steam only to loose the track again towards the end and the climax does not helps much too to add punch.  There are certain moments that would bring the cheetis and some scenes you tend to identify with the script especially with corruption on the main focus of the nation.  Especially, I liked the part when the cynical to-retire soon head constable has a word with Singham about the plight of the policeman and how the system changes even an upright men-in-khaki slowly.

GingerChai Verdict: Singham roars in part and meows a lot. You can call it a comedy-action masala though it is not exactly meant to be a comedy.

A weekend masti that goes scarily wrong.  For a regular horror flick watchers, it is a time tested plot. Ekta Kapoor’s movie (yes, this is a producer’s child rather than the directors and very few producers can claim such a tag) picks over the masti from her previous outing Love, Sex and Dhoka blends it in the horror mixer, making of which is influenced largely by the English flick paranormal activity.

So it is a back to back haunted Friday releases. If last week Haunted tried to scare us (did it?), this Friday the 13^th, Ragini MMS flaunts scares us with its sleaze and eeriness.

When Udhay (Raj kumar) and Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) arrive at the desolate farm house, the setting is a predictable and picture perfect for a horror flick.  We know it is going to be a haunted place and we know the ghost is lurching somewhere there.  While Udhay has his own plans to secretly sex-tape their love making to sell it for profit, the ghost in the house has its own plans!

Both Raj kumar and Kainaz fits their role to the blood T. Kainaz  as a cute, city-bred English speaking, unsuspecting, sexually active girl friend while Raj as a restless, conniving boyfriend are very convincing both as a daring couple “raring” for their weekend secret fun as well as when their fun turns to a nightmare.

But the good points of the movie are not that much either. Yes, the movie has its own share of eeriness and can send some chillness through your bones but unfortunately the movie is quiet a plain jane horror. It lacks a sub plot and it lacks direction.  The initial portions of the movie would remind you of dozen sleazy Hollywood horror flicks you would have seen earlier, where sex and lust is the precursor to the arrival of the ghost.  The MMS in the title is just to justify the trigger jarring constant shaking of camera mode style cinematography coz our lead guy is trigger camera happy but that itself does not have much to offer in the movie as such. For the title Ragini MMS, I would have loved a serious movie on the subjects of MMS scandal sans the ghosts.  The good thing is as any good horror movie should be it has some controlled, silent movements to scare you but also the bad thing is that you almost know it too. But hey, inspite of what other critics might say, it would definitely scare an ordinary movie-goer to some extend. The unconvincing part though is the climax – seems like the director went completely blank of his scary wits.

Ok, let’s me end the review with a sleazy cheesy thought that haunts pops after watching the movie: “If you want to have fun, have fun at home – don’t risk in an desolate unknown place”

GingerChai verdict: Sleazy, horror flick not entirely bad either. Ok, I did not say good either.

Stepmom was a wonderful movie of its time and still evokes emotions. Karan Johar has taken the official rights for adaptation of the movie but he missed out a point that much reels have flown since Stepmom’s release. In Kal Ho Na Ho again a  KJo’s production, we have seen enough of melodrama and wasted many tissues to hide the tears while watching Shahrukh undergo a slow death while making us smile inbetween. So We are  family does not evoke the emotion it intends to and ends up bit out dated for current audience.

Maya (Kajol) is a single mother of three kids  – A perfect mom for picture perfect 2 daughters and one son. A happy family who dreams of living happily ever after… Inspite of the divorce the kids still love their dad, Aman (Arjun Rampal). Aman wants Shreya (Kareena), a career oriented upcoming fashion designer, to get into good terms with his kids. The drama starts from here and heightens when Maya is diagnosed terminally ill and Shreya tries to fill in the shoes of Maya on her behest and climaxes with over dose of sentiments and typical Kjo family drama all in picture perfect Australian setting.

It’s a heroine’s movie and Kajol and Kareena rules the roost. Kajol charms and earn sympathies while Kareena is glamorous and tries to match up to her senior co-star. But there is a jerkiness in the script that slows down our interest and sympathies in the second half of the movie. In this woman’s world, Arjun tries to fit in and he does his part well. After Rock on! and Rajneeti, Arjun has chiseled his own path and is on track with his movie selections. The kids are adorable but as I said earlier way too picture perfect and cute to believe that can be seen only in KJo’s movies. The music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy does not inspire much except for the “lets rock” number.

For debutant director Siddharth P Malhotra it is supposedly a safe choice especially under Dharma productions and Kjo for guidance and much of Kjo’s shadow can be seen in the movie.

GingerChai verdict: Sentimentally, Tearfully yours,  We are Family. But not so picture perfect as it seem to be.

Predictable. Clichéd. Unoriginal. Flawed. The movie has it all but… but… it is not all that bad, it is watchable. Strange but it is.

Keeping behind the failures of Tashan, Pyaar Impossible, Dil Bole Hadippa, Badmaash Company YRF camp tries their luck in this Neil Nitin Mukesh-Deepika Padukone starrer with Pradeep Sarkar (his earlier stint being Parineeta and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag) calling the shots.

Audience of singleplex to multiplex and in small towns to cities love tapori language. Have we not enjoyed all mammu and aati kya khandala dialogues?  And loved the tapori names like we have in this movie chaddi, gulkund and diesel? And we do love those stories of under dogs triumphing right? As well as the numerous Chinese martial arts movies where a drunken monk teaches his protégé tricks in his own ingenious way to become a champion. Well, LP has it all. LP is a story of group of friends living in one of the wadis of Mumbai. Neil is a street fighter who fights blindfolded his opponents and knocks them out in one shot – so he got the moniker “One shot” Nandu. While, Pinky is an employee in a mall who dreams to win India’s Got Talent show with her skating skills. For her it is the passport for better life and getting away from the wadi life. Fate has its own scheme of things for their life. In a sudden turn of event, Pinky looses her sight in a freak accident. Step in Neil who teaches Pinky to see through her other senses using ingenious techniques we have seen in Chinese martial art movies. Add to it the predictable romance and a climax.

Neil is a complete mismatch for a tapori. He is made for a man in suit and urban casuals but the director has chosen to cast him anyways. He does his best though our mind refuses to see him as a tapori. Add to that his unwillingness to learn acting – makes things worst. But still you can watch it for Deepika and Neil’s friendly gang. Especially, I liked the madrasi character.  Deepika is remarkable especially in the skating sequences. The credit goes to the choreographers. The skating sequences are beautifully done.

GingerChai verdict: A below-average movie but does not bores you either. Watch it if you have money in pocket and nothing else to do.

When the title says I hate luv storys and the promo shows the heroine’s character as mushy mushy die-hard romantic and hero as one who hate the four letter L- word, you are pretty sure what to expect from a Bollywood movie.

Under Karan Johar’s banner debutant director Punit Malhotra starts by spoofing Bollywood love stories and especially the king of mushy times KJo’s flicks but unfortunately the movie itself charts the predictable, clichéd time tested formulae of Bollywood.

So I hate this love story coz after a promising start of mocking at Bollywood stories it ends up being one of the same kind.

I hate this love story coz the director could not extract anything from Sonam kapoor except her glossy smile and adorn her with pretty dresses.

I hate this love story coz the movie is boringly dragging.

I hate this love story coz the movie is interspersed with unnecessary songs when the going is already slow.

I hate this love story coz the movie has a quiet predictable script.

I hate this love story coz the hero like in many other Bollywood movie especially KJo movie has a “mere paas maa hai” tonic

I hate this love stoy coz the move inherits the same over dramatic and silly plot.

I hate this love story coz though this Kjo’s production has taken a pot shot at KJo himself, it ends up as nothing different.

I hate this love story coz few instances like Imran teasing the watchman of the house reminds of other movies and actors and Amir khan in this particular scene.

Is there anything left to love this love story?

I love this love story coz the canvas is bright.

I love this love story coz for the supporting characters played by Samir soni, Kavin dave etc

Well, I may teens may love this love story coz Imran fits perfect as a chocolate boy hero.

GingerChai Verdict: A below average candy floss  movie with predictable, boring script dragged too long to drown you into boredom. If you have time to kill, watch it.