Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur a dark, violent tale that kicks its journey through pre-independence 1940′s to 2000′s demands your full attention or you are at danger of getting bumped out of the narrative and events.
Set in the rustic, wild, rural land in Danbad district which shifted its address from pre-independence Bengal, later to Bihar and now in Jharkand is blessed with minerals. The exploitation of coal is actually at the cost of the exploitation of poverty and illiterate local population which leads to proliferation of blood, gore and the might of machetes and bullets in collusion with political class, bureaucracy, and the rogues. The seeds of revenge are sowed in the tiny hamlet of Wasseypur when Shahid Khan is outcasted after crossing lines with the local gangster and impersonating as legendary Sultana Daku. He then joins as the pehlwan of Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), a local mafia. Sensing Shahid Khan’s larger ambitions of becoming a mafia himself, he eliminates him one day, when he takes him out of home, only to not return forever. Shahid khan’s kid, Sardar Khan is whisked away by his uncle escaping the knives of Ramdadhir Singh’s men who were send to eliminate the family. Sardar Khan grows up in Danbad with only revenge in thoughts and action and sports a shaved head which he swears will be bald till he takes revenge on Ramadhir Singh. Time shifts. Ramadhir Singh grows up to be a politician and a MLA now, while Sardar Khan his nemesis engineers himself to become a ruthless, cold-blooded gangster. Amidst all the butchery and gore, the film also delves into the timeline of Sardar Khan’s family life with his marriage first to Nagma (Richa Chadda) and his second marriage with Durga (Reema Sen) and his children.
It needs a huge effort, attention and narrative skill to tell a tale that spans 60 years,many generations and changing landscape and Anurag Kashyap weaves through the time and characters adeptly. He deftly handles the intricacies and extreme lunacies of human nature with so many characters that walk around, many getting butchered in between. Standing tall is Manoj Bajpai as Sardar Khan with the fire of revenge burning inside and ruthlessly and meticulously planning his rise as gangster taking advantage of the turmoil and lawlessness of the countryside and equally being goofy, quirky even getting beaten up and chased by his wife, Manoj is in full flourish and sizzles on-screen with his controlled acting. Matching him is Tigmanshu Dhulia (for the filmi un-initiated, do note he is the director of movies like Shagird, Saheb biwi aur gangster and Paan Singh Tomar) as Ramadhir Singh with an understated calmness even when Sardar Khan is baying for his downfall. Then you have the womenfolk in the movie dominated by men and blood. Richa Chadda as Nagma, a nondescript women when she marries Sardar Khan then flourishes with her screams, chases him when he visits other women, rues, shouts but manages the family when her husband leaves her to other woman and then there is Reema Sen, a Hindu Bengali woman who marries Sardar khan and also we have Huma Quereshi, who makes her presence felt in the fading end of the movie and promises a bigger role in the second part of the movie (Yes, GOW is a two parts and you have a to be continued at the end, the movie was screened in Cannes continuously taking some 5 hours, for Indian audience it would be presented as two parts) Rest of the characters and you have a long list for me to name all of them does a very commendable work and Nawazuddin Sidiqui as Faizal, film crazy, drug addict son of Sardar Khan who expectedly would get the larger role in the second part of GOW hints ably that he can match Manoj in acting.
As much blood is spilled without any remorse or sin, expletives fires out of the mouth at free will adding to the rustic and darker shades of the movie. Sneha Khanwalkar’s folk music and GV Prakash’s gripping, rustic background music is the strong pillar of the movie along with Rajeev Ravi’s mowing camera that is a brilliant visual,dark canvas capturing the changing landscape and fallacies of the people.
On a final note Anurag Kashyap’s GOW is an epic bloody tale that drains you at the end even though it adeptly holds you till the end. A bit of butchering in the editing table could have made it deservedly less demanding on the audience, nevertheless it’s a great movie but full of blood and expletives.
In the land that gave the world Kama sutra, discussing sex is still a taboo and sperm donation a bigger taboo. And here is a small budget Bollywood movie that tries to break the taboo by delivering a very entertaining, meaningful movie with a warm heart and a good intention.
Vicky Donor is a light hearted rom-com that revolves around sperm donation as the main subject but without getting preachy about it. The soul of the movie is in the wonderful script that is endearing and light hearted, the characters very real and the emotional chord tucked in right places and the laughter sugar-coating the meaningful intention.
Dr Baldev Chaddha (Annu kapoor) runs an infertility clinic and many childless couples rest their hopes on him and dream of their bundle of joy. But the Doctor knows in practicality, its only a probability based heavily on the sperm quality and chance. And then as a good doctor he needs to also take in count various pre-checks on the quality and nature of the donor. So the hunt for the Mr.Right Donor continues for Chaddaji whose clinic’s future as well as the hopes of many of his patience rest on it. Enter Vicky Arora (Ayushmann Khurrana), a 25 something Punjabi, living in refugee colony in Delhi, with his boisterous but loving mother and “a progressive thinking modern” grandma is a happy-go-lucky jobless guy. Dr.Chaddaji spots him and then begins a hillarious journey where he tries to convince him to be a donor. And then Ashima Roy (Yami Gautam), an independent working bengali and a divorcee breezez in romance into Vicky’s life and resulting in an inter-cultural marriage after a bouts of very entertaining cultural shocks for both the families. What happens when the neighbourhood, family and Ashima came to know about Vicky’s donor act makes the second half of the movie that has no one dull moment nor a typical masala quotient. A quality sperm of a movie!
If the script of the movie is a winner, the other highlights of the movie are the cast. The entire cast of the movie has done a commendable job with Ayushmann,Annu kapoor and Yami deserving a special mention. It’s one rare movie where you cannot fault one single actor, right from the grandmother to the staff of the clinic everyone impresses with their small roles but linger in our thoughts for long! And the best part no one over acts but at ease with their characters. a A wonderful sperm of a show!
I was never convinced with John Abraham as an actor but as a first time producer and for spotting such a script and having faith on it, take a bow John! And a special bow for the director Shoojit Sircar.
GingerChai verdict: Vicky Donor is one brilliant sperm of an entertaining movie that has the right genetic mix of entertaiment, story, heart and soul into it. Go watch it, you will never be dissappointed and the movie deserves to win in box office.
In his promotional campaigns SRK mentioned “I’m a superhero with heart” but unfortunately G.One, the super hero character SRK plays does not have an emotional connect. It is plain digital in action with no room for emotions. It sums up the movie too.
Almost all the comic book superheroes characters that have fired our imagination have an emotional connect with a degree of emotional weakness or past harping on them like Superman has his past in Krypton weighing on him, Spiderman has his uncle’s demise troubling him, closer home, Rajini’s chitti, the robot develops its emotional quotient making it very endearing to audience. The trouble with G.One is it lacks emotional quotient, for him all is purely logical and as per programmed code. This in itself would have worked marvellous had Anubhav Sinha, the director had used the character and story knot that promises a wide scope for imagination and possibilities did not turn it into a very predictable, stereotype film that borrows traces form Ironman, Tron, Terminator and our own Robot. May be the release of Robot complicated the process having set a benchmark for Indian superhero sci-fi movies. So influence of Chitti is visible here and there. We have a similar train sequence that we had in Robot, though the gravity defying run/walk on train might be positionally different. Also haven’t we seen a better and mind-blowing train stopping scene in Spiderman 2 ?
While in Tron, we have the characters entering the virtual world, in Ra.one we have the virtual characters stepping out to reality. By now you might be aware of the story. Sekhar Subramaniam, a very stereotypical over-exaggerated Tamilian geek is considered super uncool by his uber cool computer gaming freak son, who feels villains are super cool. So Sekhar goes on to created a computer game where the villain is almost invincible. But problem arises when the villain, Ra.One steps out of the virtual world and plays havoc in the life of Shekar and his family.
I fail to understand the need for so stereotypical characters when you are projecting a movie that would take Indian movies to “the next level”. So a geek has to be ridiculously awkward (the geek even eats noodles mixed with curd and slurps his hand, Tamilans can’t live without their dollops of curd you see, even if rice is substituted by noodles) No doubt there are moments where SRK is endearing as the geek but the scenes are far less. Kareena comes and goes as a beautiful mom. While, the notable performance is from Armaan who plays Prateek, kid of SRK. Arjun Rampal makes you want to see him more, though the face-off between the super heroes are far less and himself has a less screen time. Ofcourse he gets to speak what could be the most memorable line of the movie “Tum har saal Ra.One ko isley jalathey ho .. tum jantey ho woh kabhi nahi marta”
Yes, lots of work has gone into the movie, the movie is technically better than any other Bollywood movie, got some brilliant scores by Vishal Shekar and few more brownie points but all is lost in a poorly executed script that fails to unlock the true potential of the characters and fails to take the imagination to “the next level” that makes a superhero movie truly fab. Also to add, it starts with a silly opening sequence involving Sanjay Dutt as Khalnayak and Priyanka as Desi girl who plays some game characters. Super star, Rajini makes a cameo appearance in his super hero role Chitti but the script again fails to unlock the two superstar’s appeal on screen.
GingerChai verdict: Ra.One high on hype but fails to deliver the super hero punch. Go without any mega expectations, you might be pleased if not highly excited. Kids might love it, though.
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.
Salman Khan is on a dream run with back to back hits in Dabaang and Ready and is all set to ring the cash register and shatter the box office records with his latest release Bodyguard directed by acclaimed Malayalam director Siddique. The movie is a remake of the the director’s original 2010 release in Malayalam by the same title that was also later remade by him in Tamil. The movie was a super hit in both the language and Hindi version would be no different coz the movie delivers a clean, romantic comedy and is a wholesome family entertainer.
Salman plays the role of Lovely Singh, a private security agent – a larger-than-life super hero type but sincere, tough, loyal and affable character. He is assigned to be the bodyguard of Divya (Kareena kapoor), daughter of a Sartaj Rana (Raj babbar), a wealthy and powerful feudal lord. Salman has much respect for Sartaj as his father too was his bodyguard and he feels he owes his life to him. Salman takes his mallick’s words too serious and he follows Divya like a shadow and also frustrates her as her fitness trainer. Irritated Divya tries to emotionally play with Lovely Singh and distract him by making anonymous call. What begins as prank calls gets serious with love spreading its wings. When you think the movie is set for a predictable ending, you have a twist in the climax.
It’s Lovely Singh who carries the movie all the way and the chemistry between Salman and Kareena guards the movie. Albeit the super hero action sequences, the movie is a romantic comedy and breezy throughout, forget the villains who appear only to get beaten to pulp by Salman. To the larger part of the movie till the climax, the script is simple, straight forward peppered with comedy, action and Sallu-isque dialogues but you would not cringe, yawn or get lost. Rajat Rawail as Tsunami Singh makes you laugh and don’t forget to miss the captions in his Tees. The songs are already topping the charts, “I Love you” and “Teri Meri” being my pick.
GingerChai Verdict: A complete family entertainer that is tailor-made for Salman khan. This festive season get entertained by this lovable bodyguard.
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.
Its the seasons of sequels, although most of the squels oflate has been disappointing. Mahesh Bhatt presensts the sequel to the 2004 blockbuster Murder. If Murder was hot, Murder 2 is much more hotter and steamier but.. well before I reaveal that let me tell you few other things. In this second outing, the movie gets an entire new team with a new director calling shots, a new plot having nothing to do with the Murder 1 and an entirely new star cast barring the main lead Emraan Hashmi.
This racy erotic thriller is set in Goa is loosely inspired by the Korean film The Chaser. Arjun Bhagawat (Emraan Hashmi) an ex-cop and now a drug peddler is approached by a pimp whose girls on pay roll goes missing. It turns out that there is a serial killer on a prowl. While trying to crack the mystery, Arjun asks the pimp to send another girl, if one particular suspect calls again, so that they can lure him and catch. Uknowing to Arjun, a college studying girl, who is lured into prostitution for money in a desperate move to give a good life to her family, is send to the customer. Later when he comes to know, he admonishes the pimp for playing with the life of a teen and is desperate to save her. But things turn more darker and grimmer when the serial killer turns out to be a neurotic serial killer. On a side track, Arjun has an affair with a model (Jacqueline fernandez) wh0 also gets into the attention of the psychopath.
The Murder 2 is good in patches, the first half is edgier and steamier and keeps you on a hook. Though in the second half, the director looses the plot and the story become more predictable and lackluster but the climax gets better. If Murder 2 manages to hold attention, it is not the steamy scenes or Emraan Haashmi but villain of the movie potrayed adeptly by Prashant Narayanan. Its been a long time Bollywood saw a villain taking honours of a movie and Prashant is chillingly brilliant in his role. Yes, Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline takes the definition of steamier to an erotic high for Bollywood standards but the scenes lack chemistry and it is more like a steamy condomn ad. Even their own stories does not strike an emotional chord. Sulagna Panigrahi, as Reshma, the college girl makes an impression too.
GingerChai Verdict: Murder 2 may not be upto the mark of Murder but the movie is definitely edgier in parts and watchable. Atleast for Prashant Narayan’s brilliant performance, you can give it a watch. Go with low expectation, you will be thrilled.
When it comes to movies, Aamir Khan knows how to gather the moss. People may hate it, love it, loathe it or hum it but the song “Bhaag DK Bose” did gathered the required hype for the Aamir Khan’s home production directed by Abhinay Deo and written by new comer Akshat Verma. The song also was a preview of how the movie would be – quirky, raw, starkly funny and outrageous but equally enjoyable.
The story is simple and straight. 3 messy, lazy, careless, crazy friends living in a messy bachelor pad gets into a diamond mix up situation and finds themselves chased by a gangster and how they extricate themselves from the knot. This one liner might be seemingly simple and seen umpteen times in many films but the treatment differs and that is what differentiates a movie from the rest.
Delhi Belly treats you differently. It is not for everyone. As much like the (in)famous song, the movie would also be either loathed or hated. Ofcoure one can safely say, it is sure to hit the sense and sensibilities of the most of the older generation. It is a far cry from the now regular Bollywood diet of Karan Johar style sweet romances and David Dhawan style comedies or even RGV’s treatment of movies. The expletives are as casual as a group of friends might swear within their circle, the dialogues as natural it can be without the gloss and niceties. When I said nicety, let me warn you don’t expect any nicety from the movie. It might hit you and the very lack of nicety also guffaws you, the crude jokes and sounds would make you laugh out loud right from your belly.
The movie takes the potty joke to the next level. It is almost an integral part of the entire movie. Kunal Roy Kapoor handles the potty and gassy part remarkably (nastily?!) well and he fits the role like a right commode (what an analogy?! Ok it’s the Delhi Belly effect on me) It would be unfair to the rest of the cast to say it is Imran Khan’s movie. It is not. The movie is a collective act and everyone deserves a pat. While Vir das was whacky best in the Jaa Chudail song. How could I forget Vijay Raaz. After a miniscule, almost forgettable and wasted role in Always Kabhi Kabhi, he has got enough space to flourish as gangster. As a ruthless gangster with a cool madness, he steals the show with an effortless, natural act laced with brilliance. Shenaz Treasury and Poorna Jagannathan are the two lead actress. While Shenaz has a light role as the lover of Imran, Poorna is the one who makes a better impression as his colleague, also gets two lip lock scenes with Imran, interestingly both the times in car.
The music of the movie is already chart toppers. In the movie, they are not forced upon us but mixed breezily into the plot. The much talked about Aamir Khan’s item song comes in the end. As Disco Fighter, Aamir spoofs Bollywood’s original disco dancer, Mithun da in a garish, outrageous makeup and costume and you might smile at his antics but for me the movie outshined the disco fighter. The movie does not need as such Aamir Khan’s item number; it is brilliant in its own way. Aamir, the producer could be proud of this fact.
GingerChai verdict: Like the song “Bhaag DK Bose” some of you might loathe it while the rest might like it. Personally I liked it and most of the crowd seems to love it too. If you liked the song, the chances are you would definitely like the movie too. The movie is on your face, unabashed, brazen entertainer, nasty and with no pretention to be nice but makes you laugh out loud right from your belly. Watch it with your friends or even alone coz most of our parents might not be comfortable watching together.
© 2012. All Rights Reserved. Created by Lakshmi Rajan for Ginger Chai