Movie Review - The Croods

This animation movie, set in the primitive age, takes us back down the evolution ladder to the era of cavemen. The Croods, a family of six, are the only survivors of natures wrath, among their clan. Living under the pretext of “never not be afraid”, led by the patriarch Grug, the Croods never leave their cave except for the rare occasions where they hunt in a pack.

The Croods are so primitive that they don’t know about brains or concept of ideas. Now they encounter a more advanced being, Guy, they are taken on a whole new adventure of exploration, giving up much of their previous beliefs in order to survive through the destruction of their world.

An interesting parallel story is of their rebellious teenage daughter, Eep. Eep falls for Guy, their saviour and much against, her father’s will. The egocentric father is not impressed by Guy’s innovations, whereas the rest of the family seems to like the Guy.

And like all DreamWorks movies, this too has a happy ending. Grug realizing his strength is his (physical) strength and they need to stop living in fear and start living in the light.

A few highlights of the movie are the family’s hunting tradition. The family hunts in a pack, which has an uncanny resemblance to a ruby game gone awry. Sandy the hyper- active, ferocious baby, with the speed of a road runner and fangs meant for a kill, is the families hunting tool- “release the baby!” is a common call. Another recurrent occurrence is Grug’s stories, with the epitome of them being; anything new is bad, curiosity is bad, the light is bad. Break these rules and “Bamb!” a squash of the hand indicating you’re no more.

The skillful animation, lavished with a colourful, imaginative palette is sure to score points with the younger audience. The setting, a merge of the marine and terrestrial world blended with make believe characters, is subtly interwoven in the narrative. Other than that, The Croods is not one of the best works of DreamWorks. Having set the bar high with their previous productions, The Croods is more of a let down. Lacking in humour which is supposed to be the main essence of the movie, apart from a few feeble jokes, the movie is rather bland. For an animated movie with its audience being kids and teens this aspect fails to captivate the audience and absorb them in the story. Apart from Eep, Guy and Grug, the other characters in the movie lack a personality, restricting the audience to connect with either of them.

On the whole the story fails to make a lasting impression.
Rating - 2.5 Out of 5

Review - Bombay Talkies

Movie Review: Bombay Talkies

This pizza has four slices, the toppings on each of them is a tad different from the others. You never seem fulfilled with only one slice and always look forward to the next one. Each one has been cooked specially for you by different chefs and each chef has his own peculiarity to deliver. It completely depends on you which slice you like the most but be sure that you would hate none.

What happens when four film makers like Dibakar Bannerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar come together to celebrate 100 years of Bollywood? All they do is to make sure that you become a part of that celebration. When I walked into the movie hall, I had high expectation from the movie. And when the high expectations are met with brilliant narration, the experience is no less that exhilarating.

Karan Johar knits a beautiful and sensitive narration of a bunch of urbanes finding eventual solace in realities that they find hard to face. He does an absolute stunning job in the genre of relationships and the music deftly carries the movie forward. Dibakar Bannerjee’s movie starts with his trademark colloquialism and then takes us through the pangs of reality through the lens of a person who earns a living by selling eggs but is unintentionally drawn into a tiny sequence of a movie film. Nawazuddin Siddiqui delivers a stellar performance. Bannerjee’s hold on his characters and sheer simplicity makes an outstanding impression.

Straight after an intermission, you are drawn into the kids’ world through Zoya Akhtar’s deft lenses. She manages to carry the essence of the life of teenagers and through simplicity even manages to convince her audience. But then I was expecting a lot more. I found its essence pretty much bizarre for the comprehension of most of us. Simply because hardly anyone of us would have thought the way she makes her characters think, even in childhood.

Anurag Kashyap’s movie is a powerhouse, right from the beginning till the end you are always with the story, in fact inside it almost. You can feel the character he builds, who to fulfil his father’s ultimate wish undertakes a journey to meet the movie legend Amitabh Bachhan to make him eat the ‘murabba’ which his father intends to eat bit by bit all through the rest of his life, hence becoming Mr. Bacchan’s ‘Shabri’. It may seem a little too simplistic but it keeps on building and the ending leaves you absolutely spellbound with a smirk on the side of your lips.

The trailer of the movie claimed that the movie would be ‘celebrating the emotion of Bollywood’ ….and without doubts, it does justice to every single syllable of the epithet.

Source- http://www.jammag.com/

Review - Ek thi Daayan - New Era Daayan .

Director: Kannan Iyer.
Star-Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kalki Koechlin, Huma Qureshi, 
Konkona Sen Sharma
Music Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Producer: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor, Vishal Bhardwaj
Genre: Musical Thriller
Release Date: April 18, 2013





Review - 

This Horror thriller movie is from the kitty of Indian cinema's creative minds  ie  Vishal Bharadwaj and Ekta Kapoor. We already had a glimpse of 'Dayaan' in Bhardwaj's Movie 'Makadi', but ETD  finally found a pride of place where Chudail  actually deserves to be – horror film genre. The movie is based on short stories of Mukul Sharma (Konkana's real life father).
Story revolves around, Bobo(Emraan Hashmi) , a magician , his hallucination n past experiences with 'Dayaan' and 3 womaniya's  (Kalki Koechlin, Huma Qureshi, Konkona Sen Sharma) who glued audiences in Playing 'Guess the Daayan'. 
I will not reveal the story as it will take out the gist of the movie and will spoil total movie watching experience.
The first half is all about Bobo's childhood ,to where the audiences are taken through a hypnosis session on Bobo. This portion of the movie is awesome, Mukul Sharma's story brings  the daayan to our very own city of Mumbai, into our building.The production team has done a wonderful job with the sets.There is a creepy lizard shown in it, which is really scary , at least for people like me who have a phobia for reptiles. The story evolves with concepts like The 'Ulta pair' of indian Chudail ,Long lusturous 'choti' ,No. 666,and kid eating 'Dayaan' which glued the audiences in the first half.
The second half is not much exciting,  the script is predictive but with little twist as the director wants the movie to end. Though the first half gave a  new perspective to horror movie lovers but again the latte half got trapped with the stereotype.But at least the director didn't show the cliches 'Tantric Baba' kind of end in it, that's what makes it refreshing than any other jadoo-tona witch movie.ETD manages to maintain a great balance
The casting is good, Emraan is good in his character, above average with no overacting .He played undertone and generous enough to let the ladies play their roles.The one who shines apart among the three ladies is Konkana Sen Sharma, with her unconventional beauty n looks.She is successful to scare the audiences.She did a wonderful job.She has delivered several hard-hitting performances in past of her movies but ETD shall be one of her most memorable performances for sure! The other actors like Kalki and Huma Qureshi have also did their parts quite well.Nothing much to do for Kalki in it and got overpowered by the other two actresses but did her part well. And not to forget the two Kids (essayed by Sara Arjun as Misha and Vishesh Tiwari as the young Bobo and his sister) are worth mentioning, they did their part wonderfully and  are really gems for their age. Pavan Malhotra (Emraan’s father) is natural as always.
Music is not so effective except for one or two songs, 'Yaaram'' and ''Kaali Kaali'' are gems. but the background score is well made perfectly fit to a horror movie giving  goose bumps and chills.
The direction is good. Kanan Iyer as a first time director should take a bow as he emerges as a promising director with his strong hold on script.
Rating - 3 out of 5
Verdict - Definitely a much needed change in horror genre movie,Light hearted horror lovers go for it.             If not anything else,Just go for Konkana Sen's performance.For best experience watch in it theaters.

Review - Sona Spa

REVIEW - SONA SPA

Director: Makarand Deshpande
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Writer: Makarand Deshpande

Producer: Madan Paliwal

Cast & Crew: Naseeruddin Shah, Aahana Kumrah, Shruti Vyas, Pooja Pradhan , Vineet Sharma, Romi Jaispal and Nivedita Bhattacharya

Release Date: Mar 22, 2013




Review -  The story revolves around Sona Spa , a place where people hire someone else to sleep for themselves.These sleep workers sleep, for Rs. 2,500 per hour, and dream — this takes us to the regions of men’s lives, urges and fantasies.so while the client continue with his routine,  sleep worker sleeps for him and he feel rejuvenated and fresh?

Rucha (Shruti Vyas) and Ritu (Aahana Kumrah) both newcomers join Sona Spa in the hope of sleeping for their dear ones!  Rucha wants to sleep for her wealthy father who doesn’t get sleep since her mother’s death and is dance bar zombie and Ritu wants to sleep for her sister who’s equally traumatized after her mother and brother’s death. Rucha’s client includes Mr. Choksi (Romi Jaispal), a rich man who doesn’t get sleep while Ritu’s client is an undercover cop.

Sona Spa has a senior sleeper as well, Meenakshi (Nivedita Bhattacharya). A former prostitute, she no longer sleepswith her clients, but sleeps for them.

The first half deals with the dreams and fantasies of the clients of sona spa, Mr Choksi's sexual fantasies, his illicit extramarital affairs and violent scenes.It has some abusive dialouges and a couple of scenes with cross-dressing.

The second half deals with the two , Rucha and Ritu having metamorphosed phase and deals with their personal life problems due to the clients dreams troubling them.

The movie is pretty much shown in the trailer.Nothing new apart from it.The story has some  interesting premise but the director was not able to fetch audience interest. 

As far as the actor’s performances are concerned, Naseeruddin Shah As Baba Dayanand hardly had any much to do, he is televised avatar .Aahana Kumrah did a brilliant job and gave full justice to her role. Nivedita Bhattacharya as Minakshi had some good dialogues and she too leaves a mark as an actress.Overall, the Actors picked by Makarand Despande had given some matured level of acting, I hope these so called big star of bollywood can perform at-least 20% of what these new comers had done. Hatsoff to the casting.

Makarand Deshpande as a director and writer disappointed.Cinematography is worse.

For all those who expected an 'Hatke' film, sorry people, the film is far from even being a thriller and is merely a sleazy fest and will disturb your movie watching appetite  After hearing of the play’s success one hoped the film would repeat history but maybe not.

Best Dialogue -“Hum neend ka business karte hai, Hum neend ka business karte hai”

Rating - 1 out of 5

Verdict - Ignorance is Bliss.Better to sleep for yourself and save your time and money.

Review of Aatma - Not at all scary

Review of Aatma

Direction - Suparn Verma

Produced - Kumar Mangat Pathak,Abhishek Pathak

Written by -Suparn Verma

Starring -Bipasha Basu ,Nawazuddin Siddiqui , Doyle Dhawan

Music  - Sangeet Haldipur ,Siddharth Haldipur

Release date- 22 March 2013

Review  - Aatma is another one from basket of 'Horror' movies.The story is of not so happily married couple 'Maya' (Bipasha Basu' ) and Abhay (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). They hav a cute little daughter Nia (Doyel Dhawan). Abhay is women beater pscyotic upper middle class ' Shaqki husband, who tortures Maya with his abusive behaviour. But loves his daughter very much, actually obesses with her.Just the day of their divorce settlement that separated him from his only child., Abhay dies in an accident and returns as vengeful ‘Ghost/Atma' to take away his daughter from this mother.

This is when strange events happens to occur in Nia's Life The Aatma kills people who ever tries to trouble or even annoy his daughter Nia remotely.Nia’s classmate and teacher die in mysterious circumstances. Maya also starred having nightmares of Abhay'. Eventually, she discovers that Nia has been talking to someone imaginary (whom she claims is her father).Her fears come true when  he herself saw Abhay’s ‘Aatma’ that’s haunting them , he threatens her as he wants to take Nia back with him.

As far As Performances are concerned, Bips was good and convincing as a mother fightuing for her daughter's life.Nawaz was not at all scary as a ghost but as a abusive husband was indeed effective.The little kid did a very good job.Among the supporting cast, Shernaz Patel  as Bipasha's Mother stands out.

The Story doesnt have anything new to serve, we can very well make out its not otiginal and a straight copy from hollywood as well as bollywood movies, As the director is well known for his borrowing skills. After all, ‘ Confidence ‘and ‘The Unknown’ were the base that guided his previous two movies.The director fails to give some thrills or suspense in its script, the story is quite predictable.

The Background score is below average, not like 'Bhoot ' which was successfull to scare audiences with its single door bell sound. The VFX effects are quite shoddy.

Rating - 1 out of 5

Verdict - Not even a one time watch, Nothing  new to offer .Just go if you have enough time and money with good company.It could have been able to attract auduences if released with 3D effects. But its much better than the recent horror release 3G.

Review of Rangrezz

Director: Priyadarshan 

Producer: Vashu Bhagnani

Cast : Jackky Bhagnani, Priya Anand, Rajpal Yadav,Amitosh Nagpal, Vijay Verma and Others
Lyrics : Sameer
Music : Sajid-Wajid
Released Date: March 21, 2013

Review :- 

This Priyadarshan movie is a remake of Tamil movie 'Naadodigal'. The  story is about three friends Rishi (jackky), Winu (amitosh), Pakkya (vijay) who can do anything for each other. These 3 friends decide to do whatever it takes to unite one of their old friend 'Joy' with the girl he is in love .The story gradually takes a turn for the worst,  and the couple for whom they were even ready to risk their lives just wanted to be together for having fun and Sex , and Now cant even see each other's face.For the effort to unite them the three of them had to loose important things. Rishi's Job as an Police officer was at stake, his Grandma got killed in the fist.The other one Winnu had to amputate his leg and Pakkya goes deaf. What happens after that change inn attitude of Joy and his Girl friend and how these 3 friends tackle the betray is  the rest of the story. Nice message given at the climax for new generation love birds.

The Script is good and screenplay is good in tits and bits.The Music is good, can have some of its song in playlist.The Action sequences are above average but stretched a bit. Some scenes are illogical and even the actors hammed in them. 

As far as performances are concerned  Jackie did just fine, was unable to add a flare of himself as a action hero in it.He was actually looking Jr Uday Chopra. But he definitely grew as an actor as compared to his  last release Ajab Gazabb Love,   Priya Anand was chirpy and was successful in adding some light moments in the movie. The other performance is would definitely like to mentioned is of the Vijay Verma who was outstanding in the entire movie.He completely stole the show with his performance .

Rajpal Yadav was as usual hilarious in his part.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5.

Verdict -  The movie title doesnt links with the movie.The first half is intense and fast but the second half drags , you can take a long loo break in it.Just a One time watch.The Tamil movie was much much better than this.if possible download and watch that one with subtitles.In short its a mix bag of entertainment or we can say perfect example of 'Why not to Remake a good movie'

Review of Jolly L.L.B

Review of Jolly L.L.B

Release date – 15'th March 2013 

One Line which describes the film –Poor Man's Vishwanath . 

Best  Dialogues –

 “Aksar suna hai kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote. Ghanta lambe hote hain! Thakosle hain sab…bakwaas! Kanoon ki baat karta hai saala.”

Genre –  Drama / Comedy
 
Story - Subhash Kapoor

Music – Krsna (Tanu Weds Manu fame)

Producer -  Naren Kumar

Direction - Subhash Kapoor

Cast -  Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao and Boman Irani

Review - 

The movie tried to strike on  the loopholes in the legal system through which the rich and the privileged so called people with connections manage to roam free without guilt after committing terrible crimes.

The story revolves around struggling lawyer Jolly (Arshad) who came to Delhi to try out his luck .

Jolly wants to become famous & Rich , and wanted a case that can provice him with much wanted media attention.

Movie revolves round the case of 6 pavement dweller who got killed while sleeping on footpath by a rich drunk boy.

Jolly takes achange and grabs this case but the challenge is that he is pitted against the most powerful and highly influential lawyer  on the opposite side ie r Mr Rajpal , brilliantly  played by Boman Irani. 

First have is quite slow, with some unnecessary songs.

The second have is full with twist n turns & court room drama.

The dialogues were wise and sensible. Performance of Arshad Warsi is good but not great while Boman Irani has played his character quiet naturally. Amrita Rao has nothing much to do. 

But the performance I liked the most is of Sourabh Shukla a s eccentric Justice Tripathi. he is the one who steals attraction even more than the main characters.

The actors are tailor made for the roles and one comes out of the movie with a feel good factor. The director proves that an engrossing film can be made without the so called superstars and glamour dolls.Its a hard hitting film and does expose the rot in the system that has now set in.The end gives some hope of good prevailing over evil.

Music - Below Average

Rating - 3 Out of 5

Verdict - One time watch, Probablility of having World TV premier soon