Department is an outrageously weak product

Ram Gopal Varma's Department. Rana Daggubati, Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan, a weird mix of actors, but all of them could fit well into the RGV scheme of movies easily. RGV is a maniac on Twitter and everyone detests him for his absurdity in tweets. However, with movies, he has shared a different kind of relationship. The guy has teetered along his journey in cinema and made some amazing movies like Satya, Company and also many inglorious products like Naach, Gayab and the list goes on. My only cinema literate friend who I quote in my reviews describes RGV as a sine curve, where unpredictability is the order of every Friday. Yes, he is that precariously crotchety. When the first trailer of Department came out, I have to admit it was pretty nicely done despite being outrageously tripe. If not outrightly gushed about it, I was still looking forward to it. Unfortunately, like a lot of other promos, the movie doesnt turns to be moronically mundane and shoddily done. Such a waste!

Department is scripted by Nilesh Girkar and directed by RGV but has almost everything going against it and leaves you painfully scowling. Department is a near-insufferable, clumsy kitschy party that combines cringe inducing camerawork with slack storytelling. The story takes the tried and tested route of making up a specialist police department to fight the underworld but when a film has nothing to offer besides clichéd characters and a scrubby collection of outdated shootouts and plot twists that we've seen a dozen times before in better movies, it’s easy to be a bit annoyed. The film tumbles on the big screen with weak writing, annoying camera work and mildly nauseating dialogues. Its tedious to sit through the first half, and while the proceedings pick up some speed during the second half its hardly likeable. A day before its release, RGV tweeted, "A new story can fail but a new techniques never fails." This is the philosophy that the films follows too, except that the technique fails too. There is so much of uncalled focus on the technique that the mayhem in the script doesnt get any attention. It just limps along with the smarmy fingerprints of Bachchan's performance smudging up the imagery of crap. Typical to some other RGV products, the film ends on an incomplete note leaving you musing over the ultimate arch of the plot or its characters. You could expect such a fare to get ludicrous but RGV leaves no scope for that too, being continuously obsessed with vomiting out almost the same center plots. A worthless story told in numbing images, the film merrily dances on the line between the completely unpleasant and the utterly distasteful. I barely have a hard time watching any movie but this one is largely obtuse. I strongly believe that RGV is no more a since curve, he is devolving into an incomprehensible mess that cant even handle straight scenes.


Before we delve into any other technical aspects of Department, the cinematography mulls me for a special mention. Done by 'FXS Works' team, this camerawork plays out like an experiment of an amateur. RGV could well be defiantly thinking that he is creating a new kind of cinema using the Canon 5D like he did in Department but Sir, this grotesque mugging doesnt work out even one bit. One cant help but berate the asinine camerawork done here. In one scene, the camera is fixed on the striker of a carom board as the characters are plotting their next turgid move. 15 minutes into the movie and you would feel like jamming a pen into your ears due to the obnoxious movements of the camera, if not the contrivances of the plot or the ugly dialogues. Music by Bappi Lahiri and Dharam-Sandeep is strictly okay and only adds to interfering the screenplay at suggested intervals. The song 'Cheeni' which has been the fulcrum of publicity for Department, RGV and Nathalia Kaur merely acts as a callous intruder in the proceedings of the film, apart from being ineffably distasteful. You would rather just hear the song on your iPod because I dont think Nathalia really knows what she has been tricked into, oh well! Editing by Vinay Abhijit is craggy but he couldnt have done much with what he was given apart from massaging the throbbing temples on his head. Dialogues are barely confounding or clap worthy while they try their best to shoot out one liners every now and then, only to fall flat or look as if a high schooler wrote them. Sound mixing and editing wriggles along from good in some scenes to half baked in most other scenes. Background score is a rehash of all RGV movies.

Amitabh Bachchan provides the few sparks in Department due to his emphatic portrayal of a gangster turned politician but his part is still a trifle overplayed. The usually trustworthy Vijay Raaz looks completely embarrassed to be present on the sets and does not get the scope to perform upto his abilities. Abhimanyu Singh, one of the immensely talented actors, is saddled with a scrawny role that completely eliminates his chances of doing anything with it. Sanjay Dutt follows his usual routine of sleepwalking through roles, although grave closeups of his face at numerous instances make it completely possible for you to fall for the seductive charms of the nearest exit door. Rana Daggubati tries to flex his virile muscular body in every scene that RGV hasnt put the camera in his face, not to mention that what he does is far from acting. Both of the wifes, Anjana Sukhani (Rana's wife) and Lakshmi Manchu (Dutt's wife) are perennially annoying and peter eventually. Another worthy mention for Madhu Shalini who portrays Abhimanyu's girlfriend. As the film unspools, you realize that she practically speaks the same dialogues in every scene and delivers them with similar inability.

Department is unoriginal but could work as a minor escapade for Bachchan and Dutt fans, or maybe the fools lured in by Nathalia's private parts, which are being thrusted onto your face all day in TV promos. This is pretentious film-making where one believes that technique can overpower the prestidigitation of the script. It has taken a poor start at the box office due to lack of any buzz around it, and I dont expect any remarkable change in its collections over the next few days. Even when the second half tries to save some ass for the movie, you cant help being disappointed at the sheer hackneyed experience. I think the highlight of the whole movie was watching the trailer of Gangs of Wasseypur in the beginning. Though I vehemently opposed the camera work in Department, here is an extra half star rating to RGV for actually trying to do it!

Rating - 1/5

What The Avengers made me think, and write

This is a rehash post of an earlier post I did on superheroes. You can still read on because I felt the need for a refreshed take on the topic.

Last week, the world saw The Avengers. Mesmerized. The only word that engulfs the sea of emotions that soar inside me as I walked back home after watching it. The tremendously entertaining flick is crammed with smashing superhero characters ensemble and packs in a hell lot of fun. The pantheon chugs along swiftly, set out to charm you, battling their own egos and the world's enemies serving out garnished visual treats. The plotline maybe contrived to make it all happen but its all a dream come true for any superhero fan. The CGI is unfathomably bombastic but does not blanket the main purpose of the plot. But The Avengers is no Dark Knight. Neither does it have the cinematic craft of it, nor the inexorable heft of it. Infact, The Avengers is the most bollywoodesque movie made by Hollywood in recent times. No, its not an exaggeration.

The Avengers symptomatically adheres to utilizing the best of all the superheroes in the most relevant portions of the journey. The Iron Man is the narcissistic lovable douche, the Hulk is the quiet scene stealer, Captain America and Thor are almost made fun of, Black Widow is the hotness quotient and Hawkeye is the perfect superhero taken as a side for the main course. Apart from this, what it does well is to sustain the humor and fun in every frame as it unspools with ruthless elegance. Its a perfect masala entertainer, just the kind we like to make here in Bollywood. There are a lot of sub-plots to the main plot, there are a lot of slapdash sequences in the effort to fit in all the emotions with all the action with all the one-liners and there is a lot of breathless entertainment as all the superheroes join the party. It definitely turns out to be a perfect Bollywood masala entertainer, done smartly. As Shubhra Gupta points out here, it is the elements that make them look human that make superhero flicks favorable and The Avengers has many of them. Before you begin swanning at me, or hold me against a garrote for saying this, I wish to intone and instill that Bollywood makes such heady features, only once in a while, let alone making a superhero movie that stands up. Almost all our mainstream attempts are to make massy entertainers but higher proportion of them end up being puerile half-hearted attempts that seek unwarranted escape for the audience. We may make some of them work but we are still far from engaging our imaginations with the possibility of a successful superhero flick, almost like The Avengers.

Mr.India. Krrish. Ra.One. The only 'notable' films that I can think of when I am talking about projections of Indian superheroes on the celluloid. Please do not confuse these with science-fiction films because we have we have made a staggeringly brilliant mess of most of them and we are astoundingly nonchalant about it. Please do not confuse these with commercially unsuccessful films because all these films set the Box Office rolling and minted money for the makers like a cash cow, irrespective of the different times they were released at. Please do not confuse this argument as a affable yet devout clarification of how good or bad these movies were. My larger concern is, why these superheroes cannot come together for an Indian version of Avengers? Why are they not cool enough to come with well-made flicks that match up to their Hollywood counterparts?

The harsh truth is that we have never had an appetite for Indian superheroes! The Indian audience has a long way to go before they start appreciating superhero movies. Maybe we havent had too many or too good movies made in that genre yet. Krrish was a irresistible mashup of standard superhero concepts and subplots lavishly used in many Hollywood movies. The story line did not come up with anything new, the direction was lousy and the VFX were minimal. The film became a common joke after its releae. Ra.One was faced with the same test too and it failed. Ra.One tried to come up with a new superhero concept but the science behind everything they did lost its credibility, simply because of the way it was handled. It suffered from lousy direction and writing too, although the concepts werent lifted directly from any other movie. I dont count Mr.India as a superhero movie as it was made as more of a fantasy movie and had its soul in the right place. All these three films were aimed at kids. Mr India never got any criticism, the other two became a common fodder for slapstick jokes. The truth is, we have to stop making superhero movies for kids, specially not with B-town superstars. Take Darsheel Safary if you have to make a movie for kids. For everyone else, you have to remember that a lot of young audience watches these movies and you cant dish out something naive to them. Ra.One and Krrish, both had big budgets, were marketed exceptionally and made lots of money. The special effects, VFX and animation in Ra.One were breathtaking and at par with any movie that I have seen in this genre. But all the effort goes to waste if the movie becomes a joke amongst cinegoers. Make it big, but make it well too.

However, this is not a one way street. The movie going audience needs a definitive change in their outlook too. You may say things like India doesn't make good superhero movies, they copy concepts from Hollywood, the VFX is not up to the mark or there is no science behind their science fictions etc. Agreed, to a larger extent. But I happen to believe that its not that we cant match up to their technology, but we have to try a lot harder to refine our storytelling. We need to invest larger efforts to develop such movies and the vision they require. What lacks is the far-sightedness and pushing the levels of imagination, like a Joss Whedon possibly did for The Avengers. However, inane beliefs like, "Oh this is Bollywood, its good enough for them" and "Bollywood can only make cute love stories well" deserve comeuppance. Watch our three selections for Cannes' Film Festival this year and then make a statement. Miss Lovely, Peddlers and Gangs of Wasseypur - all three of them have been selected in different elite categories at the fest. Give Indian cinema the chance to do it, because till a very long time we were only making cinema to please our audiences, our revenues were little and risks high. Now is the time that we can do it right, but we will make a few mistakes before that and in that period, its imperative to encourage the attempts that are being made, if not appreciate them. You cant run down every attempt and improve cinema too at the same time.

The Avengers created an unfathomable interest and buzz and grossed millions across the globe on the weekend of its release. Every tom, dick and harry wanted to go for it and put up a Facebook status thereafter but the larger picture says that not everything that Hollywood does is as cool. Thor was bullshit, Green Lantern was worse than my poop and there are many other examples. Not every movie is a Dark Knight or a Spiderman 2. What do most of them really have? A guy with powers, a girl who doesnt know, he saves some lives, he kills the bad guy, he kisses the girl? Or maybe some weird creatures fighting? How much more does the plot really have, barring a few commendable attempts? And you still go and lick some ass there. Truth is, they have the money and the system in place to do all this. Their industry has always made 2-3 superhero movies every second month for the past many many years, hence, it is wrong to compare us to them. Apart from money, they also have the years of literature in comics and legends to provide more scope to this genre whereas we will have to develop our own heroes and then construct innovative visionary plotlines around them. I do not wish to call upon the wrath of the perpetrators of science fiction movies, because those definitely need some believable amounts of projected science, considering that I, myself, am a big sucker for them. But for real, the serving of superhero movies comes with a hidden tag of statutory warning which include a suspension of disbelief a palpable appetite to sit with a tub of popcorn merely for entertainment purposes, rather than scrutiny. We do that very easily for Hollywood, but not for Bollywood maybe because inherently we dont want it to break out into doing something it has not done.

So why did I rehash this post with a take on The Avengers? Because it is a classic example of how Bollywood would have made a superhero movie, with perfect additions of all masalas required in the recipe, provided we had the vision to support it. The current nett earning of The Avengers stands at an imitable figure of USD 100 million, with a few days of its release. And believe me as I said before, its no Dark Knight. At its fleeting best, I would rate it a 3-3.5/5 movie but cant turn my eyes away from the behemoth figures it has attached to it. The film may suffer from contrived plotting as opposed to a masterpiece but who cares, and the formula can be redone by anyone across the world. You dont need to make the most sensible superhero movie to break into the genre, and Hollywood is a living proof of that as they have bombarded the Box Office with them almost every fortnight. I  asked a question somewhere in this post, are we not cool enough to make a commendable superhero movie? The truth is no, we are not, but the complete truth is, that yes, we will be, soon, and this also calls for more acceptance from the audience. We have to open up and more new filmmakers have to try out this genre to create a significant difference. Till then, the Indian Superheroes have a long way to go and I can go watch The Avengers again!

Ishaqzaade lights up the fire, but succumbs to mediocrity eventually

Ishaqzaade. A movie through which Yash Raj Films got back to proper publicity of their ventures, which somehow they had appallingly avoided for the past few and it had heralded a dent on their collections for sure. Inspite of producing average to good stuff, they were going down due to their self inflicted whimsy. But with Ishaqzaade they went all out to reach to their audience. Arjun Kapoor's debut as an actor was doused with all it needs from YRF. But more importantly, it was Habib Faisal on the director's seat. The only thing I looked forward to, apart from the gregarious and easily likeable Parineeti Chopra. Faisal has been writing for YRF since Salaam Namaste and has given some strikingly commendable screenplays like Band Baaja Baraat, apart from directing one of the best movies of 2010, Do Dooni Chaar, which mooched for attention but went unnoticed, sadly. If you have not seen it, go watch it now. I went in to the theater investing my faith in Faisal's virtuosity but as I write the review, I am distracted by online shopping and what not, barely an hour after watching Ishaqzaade. I would have rather been engaged by the immersive afterthoughts of the movie.

Ishaqzaade had a lot going for it due to the virile platform its built on. The director. The production house. The actress. The music director. Unfortunately enough, it straitjackets itself to a re-bottled version of a blend of Hulchul (Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor) and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla), only with an added throttling twist at the interval. There is also a dash of Tashan (Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor) in it. The story is by Aditya Chopra and Habib Faisal and the screenplay/dialogues are done by Faisal himself. The screenplay buttresses on the flavor and the texture of the premise which Faisal manages to set up with breathless grace, like all other times. One has to understand the psych of the characters in a small town to come to terms with the gangwars, the politcs, the male chauvinism and the servility. There are hundreds of irascible bastards and tons of gunshots. Life is lived by the gun in a place where there is no law and order. Women are subject to fatuous bias while men rule is overweeningly rugged and dominating. But when did that not happen in Indian movies? Barely do we have movies that show the woman as the potent one, and they are mostly used as a nubile eye candy. Ishaqzaade, for once, does not do it in its first half. The leading lady is shown to be a rebel who doesnt give in. Faisal lends an alluring treatment to his screenplay, aided by his sharp dialogues and worthy performances. But the searing charm ends with the interval and the movie succumbs to mediocrity in the second half. How many times have we seen this? The curse of the second half.

My problem with Ishaqzaade begins with the fact that the female lead who was shown to be stilted and goaded with self pride and deep fervor to be rebellious submits herself and never really gets her revenge for the fallacy done to her. I may be revealing too much here but its shocking to see that Faisal is almost nonchalant about this. The wrong do-ers are not lynched and the excuse is shielded in underscoring the love story, which does look convincing due to his treatment but is definitely unfulfilling. You experience a wistful longing for her to do something more than just being tied around, or being foolish, considering she was the carefree macaw that may be immature but never be crippled. With Ishaqzaade, the whole focus being on the love story doesnt help the viewer but notice the gargantuan slump in screenplay, as there is no subplot to take your mind away, unlike Band Baaja Baarat. Having said that, this might not prick a lot of people as much as I project it does, honestly. If this does not make it crotchety, there is the rehash of old movies that doesnt leave much to imagination or offer anything fresh. At the end of it all, all you are left with minimal rivulets of shining spots such as the performances, the first half and the treatment of it all.

Ishaqzaade is technically taut, owing to the successful backing by YRF. The music by Amit Trivedi is a winner. Pareshaan is a runaway hit amongst one and all and Chokra Jawaan is a rare variety of item songs. The editing by Aarti Bajaj could have been better considering her measuring standard is Rockstar. Cinematography by Hemant Chaturvedi is average. Dialogues are brilliant and suit the texture of the script perfectly with no holds barred. This is something which Faisal is best at because he hauls you into his world swiftly just by his dialogues.

Ishaqzaade belongs to Parineeti Chopra but the script does not do justice to her. The female is a crackling livewire on screen, immensely lovable and condescendingly natural. She lends a rapier edge to every frame she is in, be it her dialogue delivery, her emotion or just the face she makes. She is not stunningly different, neither does she have the looks of a bombshell, but you savor her efforts and chide the incapability of the script to rise upto her. Arjun Kapoor is a welcome find, loaded with the sleight of emotions and expressions but a wriggling dialogue delivery. He does get into the skin of the character well evocatively and takes care not to ape anyone. Its their chemistry that sneeringly grips your attention. Out of all the cadre of supporting cast, no one explicitly stands out. Ajit Rastogi as Chauhan is specially annoying while Gauhar Khan is passable in a small role.

Ishaqzaade has a formidable first half and a scrawny second one, however it still maintains its entertainment quotient all through if you choose to overlook the profanity. It has taken a good start at the Box Office, due to lack of competition from the seriously frumpy Dangerous Ishq  and a relatively weak Jannat 2 that came last week. Whether the word of mouth sustains the collections or decrees obscurity is uncertain. At this juncture, I do reflect upon this one thing. Aditya Chopra has a fascination for similar stories in different premises. YRF has made many con movies and many love stories that have similar underlying plot. Some turn out to be better due to better treatment and direction, some dont. But I guess it would help a tad bit more to not obsess over used concepts. As for this one, the rating reflects the part of the movie which evokes reverence. Watch it for Parineeti Chopra!

Rating - 2.5/5

Jannat 2 is a fairly predictable fare

A few days before the release of Jannat 2, one of my more cinema-aware friend pointed out that Mahesh Bhatt 'camp' has a fixed formula plot for most of the movies that are doled out from it. The formula is subject to minor variations, mainly pertaining to a slapdash take on a distinct social evil, occurring or even a piece of news. This plot is then laced with a distinctively attractive packaging each time, placing good music, good marketing and good amount of sleaze in the cauldron before its turned on. He knows his audience, the ones that will flock in for some song and dance, some thrill and some sex. The buzz in the grapevine was that Blood Money, released barely a month ago from the Bhatt camp, was originally supposed to be Jannat 2, until the latter came in and was factory produced in no time. Those who saw Blood Money thought it was a rehash of Jannat, just in a different setting. So much of dubious behavior from the production house did not deter my expectations out of Jannat 2, prophetically pinning my hopes on Emraan Hashmi, only to end up feeling like a chump.

Sequels are a cumbersome ballgame. Jannat was an unexpected runaway hit at the Box Office and even the critics found it strikingly passable. How do you know what worked in it and how do you retain it in the sequel? Moronically enough, I find it tough to be dismissive of a crime thriller/lovestory, especially because of the compelling argument that the same house churned out an incisive Murder 2 last year and many such products recently. But Jannat 2 has nothing to offer besides clichéd characters and a scrubby collection of outdated shootouts, chases and plot twists that we've seen a dozen times before in better movies. Essentially, Jannat 2 is another rehash of Jannat or Blood Money, though we may emphatically expect it to be much more. Director Kunal Deshmukh takes up the issue of illegal arms dealing in Delhi as the backdrop which could have been a remarkably interesting premise if the story did not succumb to the ploys of a typical cop-informer saga where the hero is ready to be bad once, just to be have a 'peaceful' life thereafter. The biggest problem with Jannat 2 is that it does not dare to be different and makes you cringe to a heavy doze of contrivances and lazy conveniences. The premise may grab your attention but the fizz is petered into predictability as you run through the odd 130 minutes. Having said that, I must admit that if I had not seen Jannat or Blood Money, I would not have that many problems with the schlocky scripting in this one because its not a weak screenplay, overlooking the fact that Bhatt movies never really care about the issue they pick up, which in this case were the illegal arms. The equation between the cop and the informer, although easily conjured in the twists and turns of the plot, is mildly engaging due its love-hate nature. Many sequences have been deftly handled by the director, ably aided by his male lead, though they could have definitely done with less verbosity and more inspired character development. While most sequences involving Manish Chaudhari are stunning, most of the others involving Esha Gupta are overweeningly annoying. Indian cinema has undergone a serious reformation raising the bar of expectations. But even predictable screenplays can be pivoted with able direction. In such an age, director Deshmukh comes out as callower than he did 4 years ago. Jannat 2 may have its quirky moments that make you laugh or tizzy moments that make you wonder but they are all deployed in a shaky framework.

The Bhatt camp has elevated the sequels of their movies to a more substantial packaging to keep up with the times. Jannat 2 is Emraan's widest release till date, and the Bhatts have got their best ensemble to work on it. Pritam's music is akin to most other albums of the camp, yet it strikes a chord nosediving its way into the hearts of the masses. The songs are pushed into the screenplay pretty much as a ridiculous excuse to show Esha Gupta, and they alone shoulder the responsibility of taking the love story forward. Production Design is okay but editing could do with more scissor work. Dialogues definitely needed a serious reworking to remove the bickering voice-overs and ludicrous verbosity.

Manish Chaudhari steals the show in the limited number of scenes he gets as the villain. The guy, gunning with immense talent is suffocated and bogged down by a badly developed character of a Jatt illegal arms honcho. He gets into the character with a stunning ease but the peripheral scope leaves him at sea. Emraan Hashmi teeters with the Delhi accent, lingo and mojo but manages to scape through due to his convincing looks for all characters written in Bhatt movies. Randeep Hooda tries really hard to infuse some life in the character of the cop that he plays but barely manages to have incredulous escape in a few scenes. In most other scenes, he is as ingloriously awful as Esha Gupta, who is just a run down Lara Dutta. Brijendra Kala is first-rate as usual. Arif Zakaria is unintentionally hilarious. Also, the guy who plays Balli is completely suitable for the part.

Jannat 2 is directed towards the masses completely, to harp on the grown popularity of Hashmi in the recent times, imperviously avoiding any negative reaction by the critics. The film has taken a thoroughly smashing opening due to a wide release across single screens and multiplex. As previously said, Bhatt knows his audience and thats why even shameful products like Blood Money made money. On the contrary, this one has been greeted with a rapturous response. It may be irrelevant to point out the lack of dexterity or originality in Jannat 2 at this juncture. I can only confess something here. I did not get bored watching it, not even once.

Rating - 2/5

Vicky Donor is a laugh riot, yet has its soul in place

Vicky Donor is a small little film that not many people have really heard about. When I first saw the trailer of this one, I was doused in immense expectations. I tried to spread more awareness about the movie on social media by posting about and was indelibly looking forward to it. To my disdain, the theatre was less than half full today when I was watching it. Yes, the same that was brimful with so called lovers of good cinema who came prancing to the movies when Housefull 2 released, a couple of weeks ago. Alas, the fate of the actual good cinema took another beating today. But its not the end of hope, lets see if Vicky Donor catches on the word of mouth and more people pour in to catch this little film. But is it really worth all the hoopla that I am creating here?

Vicky Donor deals with sperm donation, a rampant taboo in India, and the makers have been forthright in putting the issue out there with all the posters carrying the tagline "I am a sperm donor". The first look convivially generated a buzz with its witty lines, interesting plot and a convincing lead in Ayushmann Khurrana who could easily pass of as an alpha male in this context. Shoojit Sircar, the director, made Yahaan before this, a lesser known movie that was indeed incredibly good and possibly marked Jimmy Shergill's career best performance. With Vicky Donor, he completely changes gears to handle another sensitive issue. But Sircar has reinvented himself now. He handles Vicky Donor with a rare sense of humor that runs perennially through its veins, yet it does not let the issue become a matter of jest. In the past, Dostana picked up the issue of homosexuality. Despite the movie being outrageously hilarious, the treatment did not help the sensitivity of the issue and made it more of a drab than a solution. The cantakerous critics brought the house down claiming it didnt do anything to improve the perception of homosexuality in India. The basic nuance in Vicky Donor is that it is brave enough to change the perceptions of sperm donation in India while retaining its persistent breezy comic flavor, almost in all frames.

Shoojit Sircar sets out with an interesting plot to set up the concept of an alpha male going into a pest of a doctor dragging him into it and then how it can change his own life and love life. He handles issues and taboo topics with a light nerve and keeps you giggling or laughing out loud all through the journey. Interestingly, he cooks up a premise of a love story, a societal disconnect and a clash of Bengali and Punjabi cultures and molds it with the inherent crux seamlessly. Pure masterstroke! Even the emotional moments are endearing but they never turn sappy. A special mention for some brilliantly handled sequences such as the marriage sequence, which is undoubtedly the best, the whole part involving the doctor convincing Ayushmann to donate, the sequence between Ayushmann and Yami when they confess their love, Yami's breakout sequence, the drinking sequence between Vickys grandmom and mom and the finale - all display a deft hand behind them. Like a lot of movies these days, this one breezes past you with convincing performances and virtuous direction. The imagery of Delhi as the backdrop is always alluring, if done right. Juhi Chaturvedis screenplay is taut and keeps you hooked for almost the whole run time of 122 minutes that smartly weaves conversations and mannerisms and cliches with a flourishing ease. The best part is that Vicky Donor doesnt mooch off anything thats been done before even in its sub-plots. It scratches the hinterland of India but never lets the scratch appear. 

Vicky Donor is produced by John Abraham's company as its first outing along with a couple of others. The producers definitely lent it the right packaging, if not the most suitable marketing. I just feel it should have been pushed a little more so that the audience would be willing to watch it. The music by Ketan Sodha and Tanuj Tiku is pleasantly fresh and collaborates well with the narrative. If you have heard the album, you will go in loving Pani Da Rang but come out remembering Rum and Whisky, specially because of its execution in the inimitable marriage sequence. The cinematography by Kamaljeet Negi is good though the editing by Shekhar Prajapati could have done better and reduced 10 minutes in the film to enhance the overall impact. Overall, a relatively new crew has decreed an oven-fresh flavor to the whole fare, that is in turn seeded in the charming.

A film like Vicky Donor vests a lot of its success in its performances, and rightly so, because each and every character makes his presence count and successively increments the value of the film. Ayushmann Khurrana is first-rate in a character tailor made for him. Typical Delhi guy, typical mannerisms and dialect, virile looks and unabashedly honest acting - he gets it all right. It works for him that its his debut movie and he does not come with any baggage for people to brood too much over him. Yami Gautam displays a searing intensity and voracious maturity that makes her totally lovable. Both the leads deliver a succinctly suited performance that lifts the movie way above mediocrity. They are aptly helped by the sleight of all the supporting actors. From the obnoxiously garish Dolly Ahluwalia as Vickys mom, to the classy funny Jayanta Das as Yami's dad, to the grandmom to the neighbour, all of them make this journey tremendously amusing. But the star of the show is the lesser publicized man, Annu Kapoor, as the doctor. We have all known the guy to have a great set of performances in his oeuvre but in Vicky Donor, he is the star of the show. You crack up every single time this scamp of a character comes on screen, specially every time he does his hand gesture of signifying a sperm. He sinks his teeth into the shamelessly Punjabi doctor running an infertility clinic with an astounding ease and never leaves a single scene in stasis. Kudos to possibly the best performance of his lifetime.

John Abraham picked Vicky Donor as the script to start his production company with, and believe me, he has never made a better choice of script in all his acting career. If only he had this sense before. Vicky Donor is a small film with a huge heart that elbows out any rehash stuff being produced lately. The film is low on publicity but high on content. However, the first day collections look decent and one can only hope that everyone who watches it, gushes about it to more people to make sure it gets what it deserves. Please dont wait for the DVD, support good cinema from today if you havent already. Go to a theatre right now and watch it, you will love it, I promise!

Rating - 4/5

Take Pride

The problem with cinema is its relative nature, what may be predominantly good for someone, maybe outrageously bad for others. The Indian Box Office numbers tell a dubious tale of success  while the overseas markets for Indian cinema has been bemusing. Both of these markets reflect heavily upon the choices of people watching Indian cinema in India, and abroad. I have been fortunate enough to be around a lot of them at both places for more than a couple of years and this is what makes me do this piece. The question is, do we take enough pride in Indian cinema, or is it a mere subject of jest or entertainment for us?

Sudhish Kamath, in his review of Agent Vinod here, brings out an intriguing point about Indian movies that is anything but asinine, as touted by some. Lets go back. Indian cinema found its footing in the 1930s when Hollywood was already flourishing. The likes of V Shantaram, Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor produced stuff which was incredulously allowed us to grow on the world cinema map. Over the years, we have teetered through our itinerary and have finally come to be where we are now. Almost every other day, we are shamelessly pitted against our counterparts abroad and sneered upon for being incompetent on any level of comparison. Why cant we humbly accept that we started late, we were troubled with our fights for independence and thereafter jolted by a slower growth as a nation? If that is not enough, we never had an efficient system in place for cinema industry to work, notwithstanding a callous lack of enough literature and opportunities for everyone. We resided in our smugness to produce what we were producing, till we found our own niche. The niche, which I believe we do have today, but we still need to hone it and capitalize on it. I feel we may have gone wrong in an anachronistic rational judgement of our cinema.

The West had a lot of literature to start with. Even today, most of their films are heavily derived from the literature written over ages. I am not saying its easy to adapt a book into a film, but atleast they had a preset thought process to work on. Why cant we allow our directors to tell their stories their way, and then decide if they have done reasonably well? What if a film is inspired or mooches from another film made somewhere else, why cant we judge this one on its own merits? When did criticism become cynicism and not a feedback for improvement? Why do watch indian movies to find out how bad they are or what has been taken from where? Has the intelligent protectors of intelligent cinema ever thought why do the audiences end up liking these films? 

With the turnaround in Indian Cinema, we now have a running system where an off-beat film gets a release neck-to-neck with a mainstream entertainer. Agreed, there are tons of independent films that still dont see the light of a theatrical release though they deserve to do so, but when did change start happening overnight? Why then do we have a bunch of people swanning over every mainstream release? As Suparn Verma points out here, the film industry survives on these mainstream releases to make money to support other lesser known films, and this is not a happenstance. I would rather call it a case of synchronicity. Suparn argues that "It is commercial cinema which creates enough profit for a heater/multiplex/distributor/exhibitor/ and finally the producer to survive." These underdogs of Indian cinema dont dare to step out of their own cliches and continue to run down things expectantly, coming from their pre-conceived notions about actors, directors and films. Cinema is an experience, that is best judged like that only, its much more than a story, an actor or a film-maker. As Sudhish Kamath points out in another very relevant article here, there is a major growing disconnect between the critics review and the audience and the advent of trends that adhere to fatuous trolling of something that you collectively dont like due to a thing in your head. Social media has doused thousands of ordinary people in this process, its not necessary that all of them make sense. If they did, why would a Paan Singh Tomar be supported so much more than a Kahaani? The crooning praises didnt pout in when Kahaani released, even though it was arguably as good a product as PST. Its not elitism, its the bias for anything that has underdog actors, directors and a film that is mutually agreed to be off-beat. Not that it matters to the actual makers, because they are irrevocably consumed in either their vision or their success, but we need to allow a breather to all of them.

The mainstream releases that are liked by a scant number of critics are the real flag bearers of our industry abroad. People know our industry abroad because of Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and their likes. The revenues have increased manifold for all films even in the overseas markets which allows for other films to find a release there and not be in the hands of malicious pirates who would be willing to release it on a DVD for the home watch of Indian residents abroad. But the problem there is much more deep. Most good films fall prey to obscurity in overseas markets, sometimes due to lack of proper awareness, sometimes due to the sheer preferences of the people there, engulfed in the hegemony of their ideas of what they expect in an Indian movie. One of of my friends' favorite movie is Vivah, because its prophetically cute and has Amrita Rao. Another one's favorite is Thank You. There are many who still rave about DDLJ, DTPH, Mohabbatein etc. Undoubtedly, some of these were great films that have been emblazoned as cult classics on the face of Indian cinema. But its callow if you dont change with times and appreciate the remarkable stuff that is being produced now. They dont appreciate a comedy like Phas Gaya Re Obama because they are expecting it to be a Hera Pheri. The real reason behind this appalling gap is because they still expect Indian movies to further the brand of that escapist cinema, where everything is allright, where you can laugh at how incompetent they are, where you have every ingredient that the cinema in their growing up years promised them. We should leave the intelligent and cool stuff for Hollywood to do it. The new age meaningful cinema, or even a fair appreciation of it, takes a back seat then. You are not judging the movie on how well its made but on whether it follows your expectations derived from a previous ideology.

There are problems pulling Indian Cinema backwards everywhere, but the world cannot change with an epiphany. But one significant step in the right direction could be taking more pride in the films produced on this side of the world, supporting them for all the stupendous effort put into them, watching them religiously as an innocent experience and then deciding the reasons for liking them or hating them, and make sure those reasons are not low-brow. There are a few people all around the world who follow this to the T, but we need to push those numbers. We are making a lot of good films here, some of which definitely need a broader perspective to watch. But we are also making a lot of bad films, which you can definitely troll. Just be fair and take pride!

Housefull 2 is a sporadically funny no-brainer

I was in a tizzy before going to watch Housefull 2. After watching Housefull, the prequel to this one,  my best friend claimed to have really enjoyed it, owing it to the laughs and gags in it. Although, he later ate his own words and refuted ever saying anything like that. Guilty pleasure, I guess. I can burn myself to shame but I did enjoy some sequences too, but the overall impact was of hair-brained humor. Housefull 2 is the only movie that has been so religiously pummeled right from the release of its first look, the trailer, the promos all the way up to its release by the people who dont watch movies just for entertainment amongst all others. On the other hand, the movie received aggrandizing promotions from its makers and a wide release. Coming from such a dubious backdrop, I could not have been particularly gushed about this one. Surprisingly, I did not find tickets for an afternoon show at the first two theaters I went to. WHAT? So many people did flock to watch Housefull 2? Compulsively, although unwillingly, I found a bad seat in the third multiplex I went to. 12 actors and Sajid Khan leading them on the director's seat, the whole idea looked grossly wrong. Then why would so many people be willing to watch it? 

Have we ever made a madcap entertainer that has not been termed asinine by the pundits of content-based cinema? Is the meaning of content only limited to serious films? Do people only want to be shocked/vowed/emotionallytugged? Does madcap not involve any thought to produce? The answer is NO. In general, the Indian audience craves to have a nice time at the movies, irrespective of what you serve. They expect a Housefull 2 to provide that and thats why they came in numbers today. The same reason they went for Dabangg, Singham and their likes. What do the scowling pundits feel then? Betrayed? The bottomline is that content should never take a backseat in cinema, and there is no excuse or exception to that law. Films like Hera Pheri, Delhi Belly and some others did not renege the plot despite being madcap entertainers. Guilty pleasure is not bad, but it should not be misattributed to puerility. 

Housefull 2 is not a shameful film, but its only sporadically funny and surreptitiously crotchety. The problem with this one is that the plot is too contrived and everything appears to be arranged right at the moment to fall in the larger scheme of buffoonery. The jokes and gags in Housefull 2 may be tasteless to some because they go the tried and tested route of evoking jest out of gays, midgets, physically challenged, dark skinned people etc. but it packs a bunch of sequences where I did laugh out loud. These shiny spots dont stick out but act merely as a throwaway in an otherwise scrawny pedestrian-humor plot that is laid out. Yet, its not terrible as I expected it to be and anyday better than a Tees Maar Khan, directed by Sajid's sister Farah Khan. Sajid contrives a confusion amongst 12 characters that is very low brained and tries hard to squeeze in unnecessary action sequences, familiar jokes and drags it for a staggering 2 hours 40 minutes which leaves the comedy half baked and banal. The few genuinely comical sequences dont haul your senses for the entire run. Another problem is that Khan makes his actors deliver some sneeringly lame lines, grotesquely believing that its funny. Stupidity is inherent with madcap entertainers and the actors need not be laconic but Sajid does not know where to stop. One wishes for more comical sequences rather than a frumpy line deliberately pushed into the screenplay. All the tribute to a million things, the mish-mash of the proceedings and the convenient plot makes Housefull 2 underwhelming, if not predictably unbearable. 

Housefull 2 is backed by Sajid Nadiadwala's production house Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, which has all the money to make big films and they do spend profusely on this one. The Production Design is slick at times and gaudy at others. Most of the technical departments are strictly okay like Sound Design, Background score and Dialogues. Music is passable and thankfully there are only 4 songs. Papa Toh Band Bajaye and Anarkali Disco Chali have become the pick of the lot. I tell you, Malaika Arora Khan shimmying on a number is still better than all of them out there. Editing could have been way better to make the final product less pneumatic and amateurish. 

When it comes to madcap entertainers made by Sajid Khan, acting starts meaning contorting faces, laughing unnecessarily and hamming generously. Sad to say, most of the actors fail at that too. Rishi and Randhir are saddled with the worst of lines which is a shame for seasoned actors. Randhir breaks into seriously unfunny dialogues in some scenes that is profane. John Abraham cannot act even in comedies, the animals used in the film act more than him. His craggy looks dont suit the character. Shreyas is allright but does not get much scope. Mithun does well to play his part well. Boman Irani is the funniest of the fathers, as expected. Chunky Pandey is irritating and comical at the same time. The girls are immersively nubile but should feature in anything but comedy. None of them stand out even once. The few sparks of comedy belong to Akshay, Riteish and veteran actor Ranjeet who features in just one sequence. Riteish is alluringly affable and Akshay does well to make you laugh, more often than not. His characteristic gesture used all through the film works big time. There also exists an appalling discrimination in the screen space given to the dirty dozen. Clearly, Akshay, Ritesh, Jacqueline and Mithun were favored, being the director's favorites. 

Housefull 2 is not the credulous madcap you are looking for, but makes you laugh in parts and keeps you entertained. The audience in my theater did not seem to complain even with its long duration and laugh at most of the gags. The hype was low, but the promotions were strong. The first day collections are projected to be huge, specially in the overseas markets. It wont fall flat like the recent Akshay Kumar movies because people seem to be liking it more. The idea of wholesome entertainment is not mastered in this piece, but the audience is still interested in checking it out, despite the critics running it down. The critic in me would rate it half a star lower but the audience in me evens it out to the final rating. Its not a fallacy but not a farce either. 

Rating - 2/5

Agent Vinod is reasonably well-plotted, but lacks the fizz

Breaking News: All the rumours going the rounds about a plausible disagreement between Saif Ali Khan and Sriram Raghavan are seemingly true. Yes, you may feel that the macaws and mynas that make up the sensationalist media may not be completely false, specially once you watch Agent Vinod, produced by Saif's Illuminati Films and directed by the supremely talented, Sriram Raghavan, of Ek Hasina Thi and Johnny Gaddar fame. Again, if you haven't seen these films, please re-evaluate your cinematic exposure of Indian cinema. 

Its been a long, tedious wait for Agent Vinod. Many years in conceptualizing and filming for the makers, and ineffable wait for the audience before this one saw a release. Saif Ali Khan's dream project, that got entangled in production issues, let alone the controversies that had the media awfully speculating. Ironically, the movie itself ends up furthering the belief *spoiler alert* in the existence of conspiracy (read controversial) theories of the New World Order too. Now go Wiki, whats that all about. Agent Vinod is a well-crafted, reasonably well-plotted spy thriller, that comes out as overweeningly confused and callously choppy. The point is after seeing the trailer, I had assumed it to be a wondrously tongue-in-cheek humor kind of action thriller that transcendentally elbows out all the others in this genre. The reality is it is that kind of a film, but you never end up feeling like that. Its almost as if two different forces were strangling the rope that pulls the film forward, unfortunately in different directions.

Agent Vinod had a lot going for it. The publicity was not aggrandizing, the expectations were not humongous like Ra.One or its likes, the lead male could quietly pass off as the Indian James Bond and the director came from a skilled cadre. Raghavan has his own uncanny style of doing thrillers. He does not believe in incorporating a gazillion twists in the tale, but he does like to tell convoluted tales that keep the viewer perennially guessing and sometimes present the obvious with his gushing notoriety. Thats where he scores above his peers that fall prey to the multiple twists in a thriller and lose sight of the teething loopholes. But who cares about loopholes, I could find a lot of them in Mission Impossible too, but you have to pocket that leap of faith when you enter the theatre and believe that your spy agent does not need to lay out everything he does. In Agent Vinod, there are many sequences which have Raghavan's watermark etched upon them but they are fewer than they they should be, and the result is that you never feel the punch. Raghavan also tries to pay a tribute to a lot of retro cinematic techniques, by incorporating old songs as background scores in significant sequences, action and non-action both. The plot is headily overstuffed with convolutions and its easy to lose sight of whats happening, but sadly, its not dealt with a deft hand making you lose patience rather than lose sight, more often than not. Its loaded with numerous throttling fight sequences, fiesty fist fights and gunshots, alluring chases, witty one-liners and arresting twists which along with a slick second half saves the film from absolute mediocrity. But none of these deliver the punch that you are expecting, the best one liners do not evoke influence and the best actions sequences do not enthrall you at times. The patchy work leaves the final outcome garbled and trite right when you are ready to feel the high. The use of old songs in background score, the sequence with aunties in the auto-rickshaw, the sequence at Prem Chopra's house in Morocco, the sequence at the wedding in Pakistan, the car chase in Latvia - original and well-executed, but straitjacketed by a missing edge to them. You might wanna think twice if the original scripting by Raghavan and Arijit Biswas was slightly different than the final product because its hard to believe that Raghavan got delusional while directing it. Having said that, few sequences are sparkling and top-notch. The one shot fight sequence built around Raabta, is a pure gem. Its a treat to watch the execution of so many kickass and wicked moments but its disappointing to realize that they dont add upto the whole film experience. Thankfully, it does not fall prey to sappy propagation of the romantic track between the leads and still keeps it there in the essence and wit. Yet, I would rate it as an ambitious aim, that slightly missed the target, but is arguably competent. 

Agent Vinod has been backed efficiently by Saif and it shows up. The Production Design is defiantly grand and instantly affable, with a lot of money poured into it. Shooting in multiple locations across the world must have been an uphill task for the whole crew but they took their time to ensure nothing comes out as unreal or garish on screen. Cinematography by Muraleedharan is overwhelmingly sleek and registers a searing impact. Editing by Pooja Surti could have been better, it defeats the purpose of a lot of visual artistry used by Raghavan. Sound mixing and editing could have been better too, many a times it misplaces masterstroke trippy segments with mis-attributed sound effects. Sound design is strikingly better from the other sound departments. Dialogues have the knack to make you grin for sure and have been written well. The music of the film has been touted as the best plagiarized album by Pritam. Most of the songs are lifted, but well-composed and appealing chartbusters, that have served as suitable accouterments to the script. Raabta, is definitely the pick of the lot, specially with its marvelous execution.  

Saif Ali Khan has grown into a very mature rooted performer, coming from his days of ludicrously sleepwalking through his roles. Pinned down as the best supporting actor by many, for me, he is a credulously able actor owing to Dil Chahta Hai,Ek Hasina Thi, Being Cyrus, Omkara, Love Aaj Kal and a couple of others. In Agent Vinod, he notches one step further, carrying along his unusual wit and the innate ability to look the part, well enough to deliver an earnest performance. He is literally the soul of the film. Kareena is saddled with a poor character sketch and does not shine, morosely getting typical to most of her other roles. There are a million other cameos by seasoned actors for small roles that end briskly without much ado but help the movie sustain its consistency in performances including Ravi Kishan, Ram Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Gulshan Grover, Shahbaz Khan and Dhritiman Chaterji. Adil Husain is allright, while B P Singh, the creator of television series CID, is hilariously miscast. 

Agent Vinod had a lot of money, time and effort riding on it. It is definitely not a bad movie, after all, but grimly enough, it does not deliver the adventure you are wanting it to. You expect heresy, but you get a mildly thandi chai. It has taken a good start at the box office and the promos are largely appealing which will ensure the collections add up. Plus, Pungi is a runaway hit with the masses and is a major draw. I would rate it half a star more, but honestly, I was expecting a lot more and came out with trifling disappointment. I will share a secret here. To all the fanboys of Mission Impossible 4, I would still rate it at 3/5, along with Don 2. I will secretly wait for Raghavan's next though because EHT and JG were both a 4/5! 

Rating - 2.5/5

Kahaani is the best movie to come out in 2 years

Blistering barnacles, this movie! I expected a lot from Kahaani, a hell of a lot, from savoring the first trailer to the subsequent ones to the music. All of them possessed a teething rapier-like edge to them. After the show got over, I was standing outside the theatre in a trope daze. Unsettled. Unnerved. During the interval, I was on a high texting everyone to go watch it right away and doped about the second half. Though I try to see the easily likeable portions in almost all movies and comment duly, only few movies have casted indelible impressions on me. Kahaani is one of them. Its actually aphrodisiacal, the one that makes me go home and write a movie. It’s a living proof of excellence in cinematic sleight.

Sujoy Ghosh, whose wriggling journey with the silver screen has consisted of the deliciously charming Jhankaar Beats and the ludicrously forgettable Home Delivery and Aladin, exhibits a side of him that oozes out awe from a cinegoer. He just revamped his bankability with possibly the strongest product to come out since Udaan. Again, if you have not seen Udaan, probably you will not end up watching Kahaani too, maybe because you dont prefer good cinema generally. Kahaani, titled as ‘The Mother of a Story’ akin to the titular image, is goaded to be different but still manages to entertain you, and above all, the movie grips and arrests you for the 130 minutes its running for. Believe me or not, you will find it hard to miss a frame, and if you do, you will unexpectedly miss a lot. We make a mess of thrillers more often than not, but Kahaani is an exhibition of a bound script, effective leitmotifs, marvelously sketched characters and formidable execution, both by the people behind the scenes and in front of. Ghosh goes backs to his roots and to Calcutta to innocuously but earnestly deliver this one, the one which is going to be memorable for a luscious span of time. From the first scene itself, you know he has got it right. The manic of Calcutta, its enshrined culture, its hues and blues, its food, its meekness, its gaudiness, its essence, its people and the nuances of each one of them have been captured and voraciously decorated on the screen with the closest attention to detail. I want to go back to Calcutta and experience it again. 

However, this did not let him let go of the story he wanted to tell as a mere throwaway and fall prey to the vicious temptation of making another tourism movie that falters in its content. He comes up with a monstrously engaging plot and keeps the viewer guessing till the very end, smirking and letting out smaller details almost every five minutes, like a magician. The climax may have its share of likes and dislikes expectedly because the second half tries hard to live up to the first one and falls a wee bit short, but the overall effect is overwhelming, to say the least. The engrossment factor supersedes the scrawny scope of finding faults in the twisted plot. All of them together, Ghosh, Suresh Nair, Nikhil Vyas and Advaita Kala (Story and Screenplay) deserve high honors for exactly knowing what they were doing and not letting it get flimsy even once. He uses all his technicians and actors more smartly than he ever did and streamlines them towards a fine outcome. Every single technician working on this movie is loaded with the same raging fervor and does not miss the tone of the movie for the bat of an eyelid. Music is minimal but completely suitable. Ekla Chalo Re is going to stay with the listeners for a long time as Amitabh Bachchan tells us why he can do just about anything well. The Background Score and Sound Design is feverishly pitch-perfect, menacing and nail-bitingly effective. Cinematography by Setu is strikingly brilliant, he captures the city like no other, from the food stalls to the chai to the Howrah Bridge to the Durga Puja. You only crave more of him. Dialogues don’t go the tried and tested route of one-liners, instead they rest their faith in sticking to the context derivatively.

Vidya Balan, the name succinctly spells out enormous power, the power of a performance, not necessarily of stardom. She recently received her third-in-a-row National Award for The Dirty Picture and here I posit her to get the fourth one in a row. This is unreal. How does she land up with all these defiantly female-centric scripts, which are executed equally well, more often than not? Not only does she pick up the daunting challenge but comes down with a graciously heartfelt performance once again, this being her best out of the lot of Paa, Ishqiya and TDP. She pens and portrays helplessness, longing, desire, anger, curiosity, confusion and confidence with barely any infirmities to talk about. To say it elicits utmost respect is only a shoddy understatement. Nawazudding Siddiqui is a much acclaimed actor from various character roles. In Kahaani, we only get to see more of him as he displays a bravura understanding of a complex character. Parambrata Chatterjee is a good find for mainstream Hindi cinema as he surprises you totally in the role of a simpleton police officer, and is pretty much the male lead of the film. Saswata Chatterjee is notably creepy, but is another good find.

Kahaani may have missed out the hype that Dirty Picture had, but Vidya Balan has almost become a brand of its own, almost a Khan for the Indian audience. It pains me to see that this one will not boast of those high rolling numbers in its first day or first weekend collections. However, it should still do well at the Box Office with the burgeoning word of mouth and its innate strength. To tell you the truth, this is cinema at its best, almost. Kahaani quietly goes down in one of the best movies ever made, for me personally; it has all the ingredients in the right amount. I try not be shamelessly generous, but if the movie is good then so be it!

If you don’t end up watching this, please quit on cinema.

Rating – 4.5/5

London Paris New York is a responsible, lasting effort

Some movies are really hard to write a review. Not because they are exceptionally good or bad. But because you cannot decide you much you liked them, actually. London Paris New York is one of them. It is definitely the most time I took to write a review. 

We make a hell lot of romantic comedies and release them next to each other to make it worse for our audience. EMAET hit the screens barely three weeks ago and and was followed by particularly soporific Jodi Breakers and Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya. All of them blatantly belong to the same genre. And this weekend comes with London Paris New York, a little film that indiscreetly managed to create quite an overwhelming buzz right upto its release. New director, music that connects, Ali Zafar's looks and the brilliant Aditi Rao Hyadri. Lovely recipe. Wait till its cooked. 

LPNY comes with a bag of similarities with EMAET in its offering, apart from just the genre and a debutante director at the helm of reins. The characters go around the best looking places of the world, have uninhibited fun being with each other and end up loving each other. There are barely ANY other characters that exist in the movie that is made like a long casual conversation between two people, it being occasionally funny. The director gives an urbane treatment to the proceedings which are surprisingly refreshing and breezy here too. But there is a striking difference between the two movies too, apart from them exploring different faces of a couple's relationship. LPNY is more author-backed, surprisingly, thankfully but not perfectly. It grows onto you as a sporadically mature take on unsteady relationships, yet chameleonically erects an intense love story of two people who fall in love just by meeting for 3 days out of 7 years, in the odd 100 minutes it trudges for. And yes, the extrememely short length works in favor of the movie, although the movie itself may not be liked by everyone. You have to believe in real world characters that possess the absolute frankness to talk about anything, even if its considering dating each other in the first 5 hours of their first meeting itself. You have to have an appetite for the possibility of love happening in a day's time, and that it lasting over years without much a do is not contrived. You have to be welcoming of a girl sleeping with a guy to childishly make him go through her pain is not bizarre. All of this and more, graciously, do not stick out as moronic leaps of faith because director Anu Menon handles them with significant care and searing spontaneity. The characters maybe straight out of the book, but their interactions keep you perennially engaged with their insecurities, fickle whims, indecisiveness, cuteness and above all, their believability. I must admit that I was partially disappointed by the interval time as the story did not offer a lot and the chemistry seemed labored, but the second half justifies that incompleteness with an "older and wiser" take on the equation and leaves you engrossed in their love, which is odd and unbelievable but totally likable. This is more like an indie movie in the cloak of a commercial rom-com. Yes, we will keep making love stories in a zillion different ways. 

Studio backing by Fox International has ensured a good set of technicians working on this movie. Cinematography is another ode to the new trend of tourism movies like ZNMD. Editing is commendable. Music and Lyrics by Ali Zafar lend the film exactly what it needs. Good call there. Most of the songs are remarkably suited to the occasion, well composed and well sung by Zafar and Aditi herself. Yet, Thehree Si Zindagi takes the cake in the album. Dialogues wont make you roll with laughter but are bordering on zingy, endearing and clever. 

What works the best for the movie is the unrestrained chemistry of the leads, that makes you believe in their improbable love, without even a ray of doubt. They let go of the hackneyed and deliver the heartwarming with as much ease as panache. I went in for the movie to love Aditi Rao Hyadri and came out loving Ali Zafar. His cocky humor, twitching foreheads and brows, and flamboyant mannerisms speak more than I expected out of him. Given a proper role, Ranbir or his likes cannot disregard him in the competition, considering he is enigmatic enough to allow the girls drool over him. Aditi Rao Hyadri is the prettiest girl I have seen in at least a couple of years, and this is the fifth time I am saying this. Its impossible to take your eyes off the screen if her eyes are on it. She delivers another stalwart performance, and only this time, she sings too. Bound to go places. 

LPNY is not dazzling or disturbing, but is consistently serene and convivially lovable. I liked it a tad bit more than EMAET because it comes with more natural conflicts in its plot and tries to address them with sensible punditry. But the incompetent first half sort of tilted my gut back to the initial level, hence the same rating. Positively recommended!

Rating - 3/5