Movies

Aamir Khan returns to screen after 3 years and naturally Talaash generates huge expectations. This time he choses a suspense thriller directed by Reema Kagti, the big question is will the movie justify the 3 year wait especially after his super-sucessfull last outing 3 Idiots? Does his faith on Reema Kagti, whose debut movie as well as the last movie was Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited released way back in 2007 be justified? Lets find the answer within this review.

The movie begins with a seemingly open-and-shut case of accident but explores if it could be a case of  ‘perfect’ murder instead? Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan), who battles a personal crisis at home, having lost his son in an accident which results in a disconnected marriage life, handles the accident case which opens up to discordant leads and couple of deaths. In between the incidents, the inspector befriends during the process of investigation Rosy (Kareena Kapoor), a sex worker. How Surjan Singh cracks the case? If it is really an incident or has a sinister angle to it? Does he and his wife (Rani Mukherji) manage to see through their marital discord? Talaash finds the answer for all this questions with a super-natural element woven into the drama.

To begin with Talaash is a decent suspense thriller with a super-natural angle to it but the main point is it worth Aamir Khan’s 3 years? The answer is sadly a big NO. Yes, Aamir has shed his super-star image and has true to his acting calibre gone deep into the character to give a flawless performance but Talaash is no exceptional package but ends up as an average movie if not mediocre. All the actors especially Rani Mukheri, Nawazuddin Siddiqui apart from Amir have done a brilliantly controlled act and lift the movie which sags a bit at many places.

So to sum it up?

Is it an Aamir Khan movie? Sadly no. As an actor as expected Aamir does justice to his role. If you expect a superstar’s movie, you would be disappointed. For 3 years wait, the movie fails miserably.

For a suspense thriller, it scores an average. Yes, Reema Kagti does has an intruiging script but sadly it is not gripping enough. It was well executed but could have been more intense and crispier. Still the movie works due to the unexpected climax and the personal crisis the Shekhawat’s faces. The personal crisis the Shekhawats goes through adds to the emotional appeal to the movie and surprisingly few people I spoke to after the movie felt it struck the chord better. We are an emotional bunch of movie-goers I suppose.

The final answer, Talaash fails as an Aamir Khan movie. Pluck the ‘Aamir khan’ factor and the baggage of expectations out of the movie, it passes as a decent mystery-thriller.

Hollywood’s affable Men in Black duo dressed in super slick black suit and black sunglasses are back together after a decade doing what they best do, policing the aliens and saving the world but then this time, its the Agent J (Will Smith)  who gets most of the suiting err filming. If you thought MIB2 over killed it with the Alien madness, MIB3 is more human both emotionally and with less Alien show pieces. Yes, MIB franchise cannot get away with its famed line-ups of aliens-of-comic-very-animalistic-protypes, so earlier in the movie. we have a chinese restaurant scene where in you get your diet of Alien creatures fighting it out. But then it mostly ends there. A dynamic shift in this edition of MIB seems to be some lessons learn a decade back and so the movie does not over kill or overwhelm you with ‘alien creatures’.

Agent J (Will Smith) can never stop himself from nagging his senior, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) over his stiffness and lack of emotions in his life and towards him, while in a lunar prison camp Boris ‘the Animal’, the villain and the last remaining member of a roughe alien race  breaks free after being locked up for 40 years and revisits Earth with vengence to destroy it as well as kill Agent K, who had captured him and also reason for loss of an arm. So how does he plans to go ahead with his revenge? he goes back to past exactly July 16, 1969 the day Agent K had captured him. His plan to kill Agent K in past and destroying earth in the process that K had undone it during that time. This scheme ofcourse takes our Agent J to crash land into the past to save his partner in black as well as our planet and thereby us in the future. Head spinning eh? Well, its all the time travel jet lag, I suppose! In the end though Agent J comes out knowing a bit about his own past and that of Agent K, which adds to the sentimental, emotional value to this MIB fare.

Its Will Smith all the way who outshadows his aged senior. And another noteworthy casting is Josh Brolin, who does a pretty neat impersonification as the younger version of Tommy and also the character as well as casting of Michael Stuhlbarg as Griffin, an extraterrestrial being who call it a curse or boon or both can see and be in  any moment of past,present and future and calculate the probability of every possible outcome of a situation in all the linear and non-linear combinations.While the bigger let down is the villain, who just fizzles out after a big bang intro and a lunar jail break. Ofcourse he is beasty with his own unique  (?!) alien dart-board-styled killing method but then it just fails the MIB funda. Though visual graphics are more refined in this movie compared to the the previous two (ofcourse the technology has come a long way since the last two movies), seems like the underline given to the production team is not to overkill as they did in the MIB2. So it is more of a controlled visual effects here be it in characters and their execution. The back to the past does has its few funny moments especially when Will Smith is told ‘its propably not the best of his times’ for men of his color and also when he finds his ‘younger’ senior drastically different than how he knows him to be in the ‘future’ present. Though not very hillarious, at best you can smile and go on.

So the final word MIB3 is better than MIB2 but fails to live up to the uniqueness and the originality MIB1 had, still it can be watched once, you won’t regret too if you don’t.

Being a home production, Saif Ali Khan got a licence to do a bond-like movie, a licence to do a solo hero movie, a licence to have his fiancée as co-star. Fair enough, but then would have been great if he had a licence to good script, licence for more facial expressions, licence for a, well a good movie.

You might have read “Around the world in 80 days” but Agent Vinod takes you around to more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Russia, Morocco, Pakistan, and Latvia and faithfully, patriotically ending in our New Delhi. Oh wait, I thought the movie climaxed here but then our Agent wanted a last minute travel to London too and along with it send out dozens of people dashing towards the exit gate of the movie hall. Poor souls!  By now had lost all their patience and also cheated into believing the movie was over only to find it get extended another 10 minutes or so extracting all the bits of remaining patience out of their weary souls.

When not being caught and get interrogated by ruthless mafias and war lords, our Agent Vinod is happy to shoot his way in and out of countries reminding you all the action games you would have played.  If not it would not be a bad idea to play some action games at home, this weekend. While globetrotting, he also bumps into Iram Billal, a Pakistani spy who is also behind what our Agent Vinod is and that is “242”. And what is “242”? It is a sophisticated, compact, portable nuclear bomb for which our Agents and the villains globe trots, while the villains wanting it to bring it to our capital city and play havoc, our all performing, all capable, indestructible, Agent Vinod stands between them and their mission.

Having said all this, yes there were indeed a few shades of brilliance. The production was sleek but then the cat-mouse-chase affair was too dragging and uninspiring. While watching a good action thriller especially a spy movie we all know the hero would be almost indestructible and heroes never fail at the end. But what makes a good thriller movie is the ability to make the audience engaged with the pace of the story and keep the adrenalin rushing. Unfortunately, though Saif tries all the Bond and Bourne tricks it just fails to connect with the audience.

If Saif comes across as a poker faced spy, who has a limited expressive ability, his co-star Kareena out does him with better, listless expressions except for her plastic smiles. And then we have dozens of villains including Prem Chopra, Ram kapoor, Gulshan Grover,  Dhritiman chatterji, while few have a longer stay, some are just guest villains.

The mujra dance just reminded me of good old 70’s and 80’s movie wherein the glamour dolls dance and charm their way to spy the villains.  And if you are waiting for the “Pungi” song like my friend who accompanied me, you need to patiently wait for the credit titles at the end.

GingerChai Verdict: Agent Vinod is a spy who lost the plot.

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.

Let’s make it clear. Shaitan is not a horror movie rather this Shaitan brings out the inner devil within a group of aimless, reckless and rich youngsters from dysfunctional family background, who party hard, live easy and stay afloat on dope that leads them into a quagmire of one crime after another.

Amy (Kalki Koechlin) , who has had a disturbed childhood witnessing the suicide of her mom returns to India with her father, now as a disturbed teen.  In India she acquaints a group of rich kids, again from a set of dysfunctional homes, who introduces her to the world of drugs, sex and night life. One wild night in a speeding Hummer car changes the course of their life. It leads to crime, blood, kidnap plot that goes wrong and more blood. It’s the essence of the story which has been brilliantly directed  by debutant director Bijoy Nambiar with a fantastic cinematography and music to accompany.

Everything about the movie is almost original and refreshing and it’s been quiet a long time Bollywood offered us such a riveting, original thriller with stellar performance by some not so popular star casts. I don’t see anybody would be so befitting for the role of Amy other than Kalki. Everything is so perfect about her for the character.  Take a bow Bijoy for the star cast and bringing out the best of them.

The slick editing and cinematography along with the music perfects the movie.  Cinematography by Madhie takes different hues, shades and angles depends on the mood of the story and the editing by Sreekar cuts, jumps and turns the events and maintains the grip throughout to engage us.  The car chase, crash and the chase sequences were splendidly shot. The shootout and chase sequence with the remix techno version of old movie song “Khoya Khoya Chand” is simply innovative and brilliantly shot and made. The music credit goes to Prashant Pillai, Amar Mohile, Ranjit Barot and Anupam Roy.

If there is one let down in the movie it is the soft and subtle husband-wife off track story of the Inspector Arvind Mathur (Rajiv Khandelwal). I felt it is unwanted and could have been done away with or else bit paced up.

Welcome to Bollywood Bijoy, job well done. Take a bow.  If I have to find some fault line, it could be with the screenplay which could have been handled bit more tightly but I am not going to complaint since the overall product is a brilliant experience for a movie buff, fed with a diet of nonsensical movies oflate.

GingerChai Verdict: A movie that is worth all your money.  Go for it.

You have to be a Sallu fan to enjoy this movie, so all you Salman fans “Are You Ready?” After all this Aneez Basmee’s movie is a charming young one man show throughout.

Salman “Dabaang” Khan is back into his charming ways in Aneez Basmee’s Ready. The movie is a remake of the Telugu hit by the same name. Salman has discovered what suits him best and that is to bring out his charming best persona; smile, action and cheesy comedy along with his mandatory abs show and deliver a mass masala entertainer and did you say… acting? Who bothers about it till the time the actor brings out the whistles and claps in the theatres.

When our Indian joint family system is getting nuclear and sub-nuclear, our Indian film Khandaan vouches for the one happy set where the entire parivar eats, sleeps, sings, dances, schemes, plots, cries, laughs merrily together. So we have one such “specimen” family where Prem (Salman Khan) is the lovable brat pampered by the entire family.  The family decides to get Prem married and their Guruji suggests a proposal from a NRI family. The girl, Puja is to arrive at airport and Prem to receive her. Enter Sanjana (Asin) who plots her way into the story family claiming herself to be Puja to escape from her two feuding uncles and their sons.  So who is Sanjana? What is her story? Obviously Prem and Sanjana would fall in love and how Prem handles their feuding “don” uncles and in the process making them too into a one single happy family is what Ready made of.

The movie has a two dozen of characters – all a “specimen” on its own all doing their part of madness to enrich the brain-dead comedy.  For Aneez this is definitely a better outing than Thank You and No Entry. Thanks to Ready being a family entertainer, we are spared of his usual diet of skin shows that was on the face in his previous movie Thank You.  “Pee Break” and that is how they call the intermission and that is the only creative part of the movie that otherwise bears the trademark stupidity of the director. Though, it is bit restraint in this movie.

Preetam’s Character Dheela and Devi Sri Prasad’s Dinka chika (the later song is from the original Telugu hit) is are already topping the music charts and it strikes the chord of the audience visually too. Did I hear seetis from female audience? Yes and that speaks of the Sallu magic.  Asin does not impress much but anyways this is just a Sallu’s world and all the characters are just to play second fiddle and hang around. But still, Asin looks lost.

GingerChai verdict: If you are a Sallu fan or like masala brain dead entertainer that bollywood gleefully offers, you will be entertained.

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.

Vikram Bhatt and RGV tirelessly love to haunt us with their horror movies.  After RGV’s outing with Phoonk 2 , now its turn of Vikram  to try scare us.  And hey,  this time he has set the ghosts on us on stereoscopic 3D format. Haunted announces itself as India’s first stereoscopic 3D horror film.  But I found it rather a horror-comedy.

Mimoh, the son of Mithun da, has now rechristened himself as Mahakshay Chakraborty, though a stint in acting school would have been a better option than changing name.  So Rehan (Mahakshay) , a US returned MBA from Stanford university arrives at a palatial, century old house, Eden Manor, in a hill station to facilitate the sales of the house. Upon arrival, he is told the house is haunted.  Brave that he is, he rubbishes and drives into the house all alone.  Now you know what to expect in a horror movie. Yes, the customary ingredients like the screeching doors, screams, lights on and off, moving chairs, music follows.  I am not going to say much into it as you would have almost be prepared for what would be in store.  The ghost pushes down a book which reveals a letter she wrote 80 years back just before her suicide. It reveals the ghost ki kahani.

80 years back, Meera, a young girl of the house played by Tia Bajpai  kills her pedophilic music teacher, Iyer (played by Arif Zakaria) while he attempts to molest her. The ghost of Iyer haunts her for next 6 days, killing the rest of the household and finally raping Meera. (Yes, rapist ghost!) Meera commits suicide. The Iyer ghost further locks up the ghost of Meera and repeatedly tortures and rapes her since then (Yes, don’t faint a ghost raping another ghost!) So Rehan is determined to  free Meera’s ghost from the evil Iyer ghost and how he does? He flies back into time with the help of a chillum smoking Sufi Baba in suit and pants!  Now this is some imagination, isn’t it ?!

I found the horror story quiet amusing and thanks to the 3D effect there are few scenes, even if it is quiet predictable, that pushes you back to the seat (or to the edge of the seat, whatever) The ghost reminds us of the faces right from the decades old movies like Evil dead and in the climax even does a flying stunts inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon *sighs*

Thought of the day: Wonder why only bad ghosts have a menacing look while good ghosts are sweet looking!

GingerChai verdict: A horror movie that actually ends up a comedy-horror.  Yes there are few predictable moments that assure you it is indeed horror movie and it is bit entertaining if you go watch it as a comedy-horror (spoof) genre.  If you plan to watch it, then watch it on 3D format that would be the only saving grace.

The name and the much hyped item number suggests that the movie should be of drugs and narcotics and Dum Maro Dum is a full on psychedelic masala movie , based on the drug scene in Goa.

Prateik Babbar as Laurie the bumbling teenager , who gets caught in the web of the narcotic scene as a carrier is impressive and looks the part. Abhishek Bacchan as Inspector Vishnu Kamath , the ex corrupt but now clean cop,  is his usual self. By usual I don’t mean bad ( I never considered him as a bad actor and if you don’t agree with me then just watch his Yuva),only spontaneous. Debutant Rana Daggubati  as Zoki the musician and good Samaritan, strumming his guitar and wooing his lady love, Bipasha with Tee Amo is good looking and let us keep it at that only. We will have to watch a couple of movies more to really give a verdict about his acting. Bipasha Basu as the ambitious Zoe looks troubled throughout the movie. We see more of her frowns than her hot bod. We have Vidya Balan in a bit role and feel grateful that it is a bit role only. Some how she wouldn’t have suited the movie.  Aditya Pancholi as the drug lord Biscuta is forgettable. Supporting cast of Govind Namdeo and Abhishek’s Lackey- Mercy is impressive but the plot os more riveting than the performances. The first half is fast while the second half drags at parts, but the last fifteen mins of the movie again turns interesting and non clichéd. The music makes you sit up (even Thaii thaii, the rap number) and Goa captured in Sepia with flashes of psychedelic lights and colours, and zonked out scantily clad foreigners is more realistic than the pristine blues and glosses of other movies like Golmaal etc . Few dialogues and scenes are good enough to keep playing in your mind on repeat long after the movie is over.The direction is wholesomely complete(almost) barring aside some loopholes, but as I said who cares for perfection in a masala movie?.…Did I miss something? Oh yes! The plot! Oh dear I did the review upside down, but that is drugs for you. Even the hint of it in the atmosphere is enough to mess up everything-from your viewpoint to your life to career to everything that you hold dear. Is that the message of the movie? Not exactly.

The movie in the first half brings the three key characters of Laurie (prateik), Kamath (Abhishek) and Joki in one frame through some fast flashbacks of their life. Laurie in need of some big money to finance his higher studies , agrees to become a carrier and gets caught. Joki a simple musician who lost his girl friend  Bipasha to her ambition and Drug Lord Biscuta, decides to stand by Laurie and clear him from this mess. Abhishek Bacchan as the super cop who had no scruples,  finds the purpose of his life after a personal tragedy and a second chance by the Goa CM to clear up the drug scene

Three of them are brought together after Laurie is caught with cocaine in the Airport and it is upto Abhishek Bachan and Joki to clean up Goa and hunt down an elusive yet key character in the drug scene, Michael Barbosa. The second part of first half and the second half is about the hunt for the elusive Barbosa and the usual cop and bad man chasing-bashing scenes.  Action scenes are just about tolerable, but the movie in whole, if you turn a blind to the few imperfection, is a good weekend watch and more so if the last movie you watched was around a year back.

The song Dum Maro Dum? Need I say anything especially about it? Its just part of the package and is not much more than what it appears to be- a passable item number.

Ginger Chai verdict-The movie is not an example of perfection or brilliance, but who wants perfection? I think for a paisa wasool 3 hours , a movie that is better than bad suffices too, but here is news! Dum Maro Dum is good, not perfect or excellent but definitely good.