'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' review: The magic of the 90s

A good cast is the best thing that can happen to a movie. It is especially great when all of them not only look perfect for their respective roles but also individually give their best to the film. 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' is the perfect example of this fact.

The effort that has gone in to making this sweet romantic comedy set in the small backdrop of Rishikesh and Haridwar, is apparent.

The plot is easy to predict but the performances would blow your mind. Whether it is Ayushmann Khurrana as a good-for-nothing dreamer or Bhumi Pedneker playing the strong willed educated girl with a dream of being a school teacher.

Bhumi is perhaps the best debut actress that Bollywood has seen in the past few years. She is genuinely a good actress, has a great screen presence and looks beautiful as Sandhya. Her struggles with being fat does not curb her spirit and that is what the audience will take from this movie.

The straight from the heart storyline will take you back the memory lanes. The director has taken his time to wind you in his 90s memorabilia starting with the charm of listening to cassettes – complete with how we wound them up patiently and how our favourite songs were put together in one cassette with stickers telling us the playlist. There were also the scooters which one had to carefully balance upon to get from one place to another. All in all the nostalgia of the last decade of the 20th century has been beautifully recreated in the film.

The director has kept the characters strong and the story concise. Even with the predictability of the movie the growing chemistry between Ayushmann and Bhumi is worth watching.

Sanjay Mishra, Sheeba Chadda, Alika Amin and Seema Pahwa (one who played Mishra's wife in 2014's critically acclaimed movie 'Aankhon Dekhi') are perfect supporting cast for the love story.

Sharat Kataria who is known for his quirky endeavours 'Bheja Fry' and 'Bheja Fry 2' has proved his genius once more with 'Dum Laga ke...'. While his last ventures focussed on urban characters, his now semi-urban story also is spot on.

The movie steers clear of exaggerated feelings and speaks of some real situations and real disappointments without being didactic. The fat girl, who has to overcome the prejudices her husband has about her, is not however the unimaginative loser that we have seen in Bollywood so far. She is educated and has an ambition – therefore lucrative for her in-laws. But they don't take advantage of her. Even with the usual Indian taunting by the Bua, the family mostly supports her and considers her feelings. The girl herself knows how to stand up to the world.

This modern thinking without the preachiness is refreshing. Kataria has excelled in making you feel for his characters.

The background score by the Italian composer Andrea Guerra is perfect and Anu Mallik's comeback is laudable. While 'Moh Moh Ke Dhage' (both Monali Thakur's and Papon's versions) is perhaps his best composition till date, the quirky 'Sundar Susheel... ' (Malini Awasthi, Rahul Ram) sets the mood of the film pretty nicely. The Kumar Sanu fandom has been revived in this film and he brings back the memories of his heyday..

The shots (Manu Anand) of the Rishikesh and Haridwar too are beautiful and one wonders how they found the two towns empty enough to shoot since they are thronged with tourists throughout the year.

This movie is a feel good package and a must watch for those born in the 80s and the 90s simply to relive the decade. For those who are not, go for the performances. It is rare that a Bollywood movie makes you all warm, fuzzy and gooey from the inside – the experience is a must for those who love cinema.

This review was first posted on zeenews.com

Mardaani review: Watch out for fiery Rani Mukerji

In the world of Bajirao Singham and Chulbul Pandey, Shivani Shivaji Roy has come as a breath of fresh air. ` Mardaani` does not have Rani Mukerji play a tomboy – it is a woman doing her bit to fight in a man`s world.

Rani has been acknowledged as a fantastic actor. In that regard, she has very little competition in the industry. The fact that she is possibly the best has been established well with `Mardaani`. The film deals with the difficult subject of human-trafficking and Director Pradeep Sarkar tackles the issue very carefully.

Rani plays a Mumbai crime branch officer, Shivani who is a hard-bitten cop with a mission to set things right. She is not afraid to bend the rules, to nab criminals and is respected by her fellows. She gets involved in the investigation of busting a sex-trafficking racket when a girl close to her goes missing. She has to follow the trail fast, as anyone involved is getting killed fast. The investigation leads her to Delhi where she goes into the nitty-gritties of the city to nab the elusive `Walt`, played by Tahir Raj Bhasin.

Rang Rasiya review: Painting a not so pretty picture

For artists in India, Raja Ravi Varma is an icon. He brought together the western style and Indian subjects, and made God available to each and every household in the country. He is a symbol who fought the society for the freedom of expression – something that we struggle with even after a century has passed.

Happy Ending review: Intelligent but unoriginal

The movie starts with mocking the clichés of Bollywood romance, with the young urban commitment-phobic guy, highly unlikely to fall in love! And yet 'Happy Ending' is what all romantic comedies turn out to be – feel good!

Saif Ali Khan plays Yudi Jaitley, a young writer who has struck a writers block after hitting the jackpot with his first book. He is also caught in a string of unsuccessful relationships with the characters of Kareena, Preity and Kalki, which is a nice enough way to bring in the star power.

Enter Aanchal Reddy, a best-selling romantic author who doesn't believe in the idea of perfect romance she herself writes about! The rest of the story is as predictable as romedies go!

Happy New Year review: Rides solely on Shah Rukh Khan

Farah Khan's movies are never about logic, great loophole free storylines or even thought generating grounded cinema. They are the definition of the word 'Bollywood'. Entertaining, cheeky and pompous. At least they are supposed to be.

One of the biggest and most anticipated movies of the year, 'Happy New Year' sees best friends- turned enemies-turned best friends again – SRK and Farah – coming back together after a hiatus of seven long years. It is bound to draw in the masses with a long weekend release, plus the movie has been dubbed in a few regional languages as well to attract the crowd from across the country. It also boasts of a very strong star cast. Shah Rukh Khan paired with Deepika Padukone – the hit making duo; added to them are Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah. It also stars Jackie Shroff as the typical Bollywood villain – complete with a bad accent and hairstyle.

'Ek Villain' review: Watch it for Ritesh Deshmukh

Director Mohit Suri has made sure that with the trailers for `Ek Villain` the curiosity is raised to a palpable level. The thriller genre in Bollywood is so unexplored that this movie should come as a breather.

It was good to see the theatre houseful and many others queuing up for a movie that promises neither mushy romance nor comedy. The style of the motion picture is out and out thrill based, and the script and the timeline makes for an admirable tension that has been maintained throughout the length of the movie.

But there is a catch. The filmmaker has not been able to break out of the mould of melodrama that he has so far used in many of his movies. Even though this remake of the Korean flick `I Saw The Devil` is well modelled to suit the Indian audience, and retain an U/A certificate, Suri fails to capitalise on a very well built up interest through his promos, and tight lipped crew.

Sidharth Malhotra plays the brooding Guru with the back story of a heart breaking childhood. Shraddha plays an effervescent and rather chatty girl, Aisha who manages to steal Guru`s heart. Guru leaves behind his dark past, to build a life with his lady love. Unfortunately their love story is cut short when Aisha is tragically killed. Riteish Deshmukh stars in a negative role for the first time. And he is magnificent.

It is high time for a talented actor like Riteish Deshmukh to finally explore movies like `Ek Villain`. He has out-shined and outperformed every actor in the movie and is possibly the biggest reason you should go and watch `Ek Villain`. This might be the turning point for Deshmukh as he would definitely be cast outside his comfort zone in Hindi movies whether in negative shades or in more character based roles in future. Filmmaker Karan Johar hit the nail on its head when he said that this was Riteish`s career best performance.


Sidharth is hardly convincing as a brooding, serious looking anti-hero. He ends up looking much out of his usual garb of a romantic hero. Even in his intense scenes and action sequences, Riteish easily overpowers with his subtle performance. Shraddha`s character fails too with some badly written emotional dialogues which really eat into the thrill of the film.

The worst mistakes are made in casting Remo Fernandez and Kamaal R Khan. Their roles are practically useless in the movie. Apart from very bad acting and some action scenes, Remo has nothing more to offer. And the less said about KRK, the better. It seems that Suri has cast him only to make the audience realise that such men are more loathful than psychopaths serial-killers.

The plot line moves interestingly between flashbacks and present day, almost seamlessly. The cinematography is not that great but the editing is crisp. The only qualm I have with the movie is that it did not need to establish the back stories of each of the actors, they could have kept some in darkness just to leave the audience asking for more. Especially Aisha`s bubbly nature and innate goodness needn`t have a tragedy attached to it.

The music is hummable and definitely a lot of people would love the intense romance, but sounds somewhat tragic and monotonous when put in perspective of the movie. `Teri Galliya` and `Banjara` are really romantic tracks which would be remembered for quite sometime.

The unveiling of the visceral saga has a lot of strong characters and Mohit has done a good job in adapting a foreign film and complimenting it with the drama that the Indian audience is used to. But he has gone a tad over in making a thriller. Maybe, filmmakers should step out of this trap more often and we wouldn`t be too far from making beacons of world cinema.


Rating:

This Article was first published on Zeenews.India.com

'Kick' review: Watch it for Salman Khan

There should be a separate benchmark for Salman Khan movies. Not only because they are mostly just high-action masala entertainers and the `Bhai` does not venture into other genres any more, but also because his audience simply worship him.

When Sajid Nadiadwala decided to step into the director`s shoes, he pulled out all stops. He has invested everything he could to make the movie look slick and make sure this is Salman`s biggest release of the year. `Kick` is based on a 2009 Telugu blockbuster by the same name.


Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan) does eccentric things to get a `kick` out of life. He goes to any lengths to get that extra spark out of life, which borders on insanity. He is loved by everyone around, but he does have ulterior motives behind his antics. Jacqueline as Shaina is a psychologist and Devi Lal`s love interest.


Made in a typical south Indian masala style, the entire movie can be summed up in its own dialogue "Main dil mein aata hoon, samajh mein nahin" (I enter hearts, but can`t be understood). It is all about Salman`s aura. Sajid has fit him into as many frames as possible, and he looks terrific. The actor has not looked this slick in a while now and every time he mouths a dialogue the hall erupts in another round of wolf whistles.

The script is not written with a lot of finesse, although that should not matter as none of the audience is expecting that. The storyline is senseless and has a lot of loopholes, but it is made up for by some good action sequences and over-the-top dialogues that are sure to go down well with Salman fans. The cinematography and CGI effects are not too bad, but the Rohit Shettyesque flying cars and vehicles breaking in every direction has become too cliched and gets boring.

The first half of the movie is slow, with a lot of scenes that could have been done away with. The entry of the `Dabbang` star as Devil in the second half is where the excitement begins. The Robin Hood of modern day Bollywood is a superhero simply because he is Salman. He can jump off buildings and wreck things to get his way without a batting an eyelid. Despite not making any sense, his screen presence is thrilling.

Jacqueline looks rather good paired with Khan – and she is positively vibrant in `Jumme Ki Raat`. That dance sequence choreographed by Ahmed Khan is fantastic and Jacqueline will make your jaw drop. The Eid special song composed by Himesh Reshammiya is already a hit and is going to stay with the masses for a while, although not in the `Munni Badnaam` way. Jacqueline does need to work on her diction, but the exotic accent has worked for Katrina before, so it may not be too much of a problem for her either.

A special mention to Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as one does not expect him to fit into this genre of cinema. He is extremely talented and fit into the character`s shoes without any trouble. Here too he has moulded himself as a maniacal villain with all the expected drama. It was fun watching him in such a heavily commercialised venture and we hope he continues doing his brand of cinema too along with big budget flicks.

Salman `Dabangg` Khan, has made sure with `Kick`, that he has another multi-crore hit under his belt. The movie is exactly what it promises - a larger than life Salman Khan movie which the director knows will go down well with his massive fan following. The actor is at ease playing a quirky hero – comic, with a big heart, can beat baddies to pulp as easily as he can romance long legged lasses. If you are a Salman fan – go watch the movie. Don`t expect any ground-breaking, revolutionary filmmaking. This is as entertaining as it gets.

2 States review: Contemporary yet strenuously long

`2 States` is the perfect example of how a story in the hands of the right director can be entertaining and can fail miserably if not. The director, Abhishek Varman had a very predictable plot to work with. Perhaps a tad too predictable.

The adaptations that screenplay writers Abhijat Joshi and Abhishek Kapoor`s team made to `3 Idiots` and `Kai Po Che` respectively, while not changing the premise too much, gave the audience a fresher story. Varman makes the mistake of not refreshing the material from which he adopted his début venture.

Boy meets girl, falls in love, want to marry, parents disagree, boy and girl separate, enter unexpected help, boy and girl together again. If we have seen it once, we have seen it again and again and again; and `2 States` is no different.

Krish Malhotra, played by Arjun Kapoor and Ananya Swaminathan, played by Alia Bhatt meet and fall in love on the IIM Ahmedabad campus. They go on to prove that they have a mature perspective on marriage and decide to please the parents and seek their blessing. The rest of the movie revolves around them trying various ways of getting the nod from the elders.

The stars and the supporting cast has carried out their roles very well. Amrita Singh is perfect as the loud, crass Punjabi mother seeking the perfect kudi for her son. Revathy too has played the Tamilian conservative quiet mother to Ananya to perfection. Ronit Roy has possibly played the part of the father who needs anger management classes too many times, this time too Ronit shines in his small appearances. Arjun tried to break out of the mould of angry young man to play a love struck puppy, not to perfection but he manages to look charming enough. Alia has talent that peeks through at times, but her characters does not have enough layers to really make a strong impact.

It would have been nice to have a little more romance, as the much advertised chemistry does exist. The two have an upbeat beginning to their relationship, but the story quickly shifts to the parents. There is just not enough time for the viewers to be convinced of their love. There are the frills of their relationship without being dumped in to saccharine sweetness that Karan Johar brand of films often are.

The expectations of some laugh out loud moments rise with the entry of the parents. Instead, the rest of the narrative depends on the clichés of North and South India. The Punjabi mother is too strung up, and the Tamil – `Madrasi` parents are too judgemental, relatives are meddlesome. `2 States` carries on with the divide with no real issues for too long, more than half the movie. And it can get tiring.

Alia looks beautiful in both the western outfits and the South Indian traditional sarees. Kudos to Manish Malhotra for a fantastic wardrobe for junior Bhatt. Another mention must be given to cinematographer, Bonid Pradhan, especially for the wedding scene at the end. It was romantic and mesmerising the way that scene was shot.

The music in the movie is refreshing. `Offo` is truly sprightly and `Chandaniya` is beautifully rendered by K. Mohan (from the band Agnee) and Yashita Sharma. The trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy recreate the youthful spring with the soundtrack of the film as they have with their previous ventures.

Watch the movie for a lack of any other show to go to with your loved one. Despite the attempts of a modern love story, this 2 and a half hour movie can get to your nerves if you are expecting anything different.

Alia Bhatt in 2 States