Bang Bang!

Katrina Kaif and Hritik Roshan in "Bang Bang"

Katrina Kaif is pretty. Well, we all know that! She has a sizzling hot body. We have seen that too. And she can’t speak Hindi! That too is not a top secret. So, what is new in “Bang Bang”? Well, she can handle guns. Ok! And to further justify a whopping 170 crore budget, director Siddharth Anand makes her sit on Hritik Roshan’s lap while he rides the dirt bike.

Intimate scene from "Bang Bang"

If you are too curious about the two words of the film’s title, and want to identify the reference, “Bang Bang” does have a lot of bangs (guns) in addition to an intimate kissing scene. But that’s that.

Katrina is pretty! No one Doubts that. But, she is an actor too. The only time you see an element of authenticity in Katrina’s acting is in a scene where Hritik is showcased devoid of his shirt and Katrina is mesmerised by watching his flawlessly chiselled body. Well, we all are.

Hritik Roshan has a body to die for. He looks in an amazing shape. Though, the sign of age was present obscurely, he can still give a lot of young actors run for their money.

 There is nothing noteworthy in the film which deserves a special mention.

Hritik Roshan is a under cover army intelligence officer who is after a dreaded criminal (Danny Danzongpa) who killed his brother in the past. In the course he meets Katrina, who lives with her granny and leads a boring and unromantic life as a receptionist in a bank.

Apart from a dozen exclusive location shoots, the film seems to have mindless explosions and stupid car crashes and insanely unrealistic stunts. Music is average and even the graphics don’t impress you much to justify the film’s insanely huge budgets. Although a copy of English flick “knight and Day” at its core, this film has nothing original it can claim to its credit, excluding its title.

There is nothing noteworthy in the film which deserves a special mention. The story is average and the characters including antagonists are below average. All in all it is below average.

RATING:   1.5/5

3 comments

Posted at 08:12 |  by Frenzy Media

Khoobsurat

NO! “Khoobsurat” is NOT a comedy, because in comedy, no matter how crass, you still manage to laugh!

“khoobsurat” a remake is a story based on the concept of “opposites attract” and in the process create some sparks too. The director tries to create the same effect but fails miserably. With his impressive voice and charming mannerism, Pakistan’s new boy “Fawad Khan” did manage to infuse some magic, but barely.

Fawad Khan

Contrary to its name, there is nothing khoobsurat about the film and it is a total disappointment.

Milli(Sonam Kapoor) is a physiotherapist from Delhi who is visiting some palace to treat a king and rid him of his wheel chair. Sonam, a brazenly loud mouthed girl encounters Vikram Singh Rathod(Fawad), a Handsome, composed prince and she begins to like him. But, the prince is already engaged to some one (Aditi Rao Hydari). After some hiccups, and few odd interactions, the prince falls for her. He finally cancels his engagement to Aditi Rao and asks Sonam to marry her. Really?

Aditi Rao Hydari

“Khoobsurat” has a weak plot, its songs are painfully boring and the characters are really not realistic. Apart from the new boy “Fawad Khan” who does manage to give some saving grace to the film, it is disastrous. Even the grandeur and richness of a palace with its beautiful interiors could not save this movie.

“Aditi Rao Hydari” has a small role, but, in those two brief scenes that she does in the film, she manages to illustrate her finesse that Sonam Kapoor couldn’t, in the entire movie.

Ratna Pathak

Kirron Kher

Kirron kher who plays Sonam kapoor’s infuriating mother was way out louder than required. Sonam kapoor’s docile Bong father could have been explored a bit more to make the plot little interesting, but, director achieves nothing of it. The maharani played by Ratna Pathak is ok but, there is no variation in her charcacter and she remains a dry stuck up mom almost throughout the film. Such a waste!

With “Khoobsurat”, it is official. Sonam Kapoor can’t act! Lord only knows how many more flop film and her dad’s money will it take for Sonam Kapoor to realize this fact!

4 comments

Posted at 00:02 |  by Frenzy Media

Finding Fanny

Deepika Padukone in Finding Fanny

Shot in the interesting backdrop of Goa, “Finding Fanny” is in no way a typecast film. It has a perfect blend of an enjoyable film. Its story is fresh and is shot brilliantly. With peculiar characters, Homi Adajania has done a perfect job in choosing his cast too. Finding Fanny is unusual in several ways. The fact that the film is originally shot in English shows Homi’s conviction and urge to do something different and innovative.

"Deepika padukone brings Angie to life so intensely."

Deepika Padukone in a intimate scene

Deepika padukone is intimate and flows like a breeze. She brings Angie to life so intensely that her acting in the film is beyond the dialogues and scenes. One thing is clear in “Finding Fanny” Deepika is now way past her beautiful imagery and is exploring her inner actor. Her role as Angie in “Finding Fanny” proves it further.

Arjun Kapoor

Arjun Kapoor, plays role of a garage owner named Savio, who is amorously inclined towards Angie. He is looking good in his role. Don Pedro who has a certain attraction for big bottomed women is played convincingly by Pankaj Kapoor. Naseeruddin is versatile as a postman and, Dimple kapadia playing Rosie is equally charming and interesting in the film.

If you are expecting conventional cinema you might get a wee bit disappointed. But, Finding Fanny is filled with lot of mischievous moments and unexpected thrills.

Go watch it!

RATING:   3.5/5

3 comments

Posted at 10:51 |  by Frenzy Media

Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

Humpy Sharma in action

How often do you come across a boy whose name is “Humpty”! Like the name the film too is refreshingly odd.

First time director “Shashank Khaitan” has proved he is quite promising.

Spoken idiom by which the characters reveal their personality and morals is quite vivid and fresh. In the scene where Humpty refuses to cheat and leaves his paper nearly blank instead, for cheating is a bad deed, Ketan brilliantly maintains film’s casualness in revealing Humpty Sharma’s character and his morality.

                  

Alia Bhatt playing “Ludhiane di kudi” is lively and fresh, and is indeed the star of the film. Varun Dhawan, “A Delhi boy” is a natural. The banter between them is fresh and fun. At the core “Humpty sharma ki dulhania” is a young film and is targeted at the youth.

Tested with their debut movie “Student of the year”, Varun and Alia have a fabulous on-line chemistry in the film. The songs of the film are pleasant and hum able and topped the charts for quite some time.

Ashutosh Rana still has the touch.

Television star Siddharth Shukhla playing the NRI hunk justifies his role and Ashutosh Rana playing Alia’s Father, who we all would love to see more often, proves, “he still has the touch”. Humpty’s friends  “Poplu” played by Sahil Vaid and “Shonty” played by Gaurav Pandey are both brilliant and promising.

Unfortunately, in the second half of the film, Shashank looses his grip and the film begins to stray. Post Interval, film is predictable and you just wait for them to unite. Never the less, all in all, ‘Humpty sharma ki dulhani’ is watchable and what is lost in the plot and story in second half is comfortably compensated with the spontaneity and freshness of first.

But, can a girl really go to that extent to get a designer lehnga for her wedding? That is some thing I still have some trouble believing. 

 Kapoor & Sons official tailor featuring Alia Bhat, Siddharth Malhotra and Fawad Khan.

4 comments

Posted at 11:37 |  by Frenzy Media

Filmistan

Sharib Hashmi in "Filmistan"

New cast, no actress, no oomph factoring item songs. “Filmistan” is pure delight to watch. With no pseudo gimmickry, this is what I call pure cinema. Believe me; Bollywood is quite capable of placing a song almost anywhere. Yes! Even in a remote village in Pakistan. If nothing else, a dream sequence justifies it all. “Filmistan” spares us of all that!

“Filmistan” is story of a Bollywood struggler “Sunny” who goes to Indian border with a foreign TV crew on a shoot.Sunny, who is a Bollywood fan at core is captured by extremists there and taken across the border to a village in Pakistan.

This remote village provides a lot of room for him to perform and mimic Bollywood actors to entertain himself as well as his captors. Some thing he is almost always extremely comfortable with. Rest is his struggle for escape.

Innamul Haq

Sharib Hashmi(Sunny) has stunned everyone with his emotive performance in “Filmistan”. Innam ul haq who is in supporting role and plays a pirated Bollywood film CD peddler is a natural. Every bit of his effortless performance can be enjoyed in the film.

“Filmistan” is an intelligent story. 

First time director Nitin Kakkar wisely keeps away from any controversy as far as Pakistan’s reference is concerned. The film is shot on a shoe string budget and director Nitin Kakkar has clearly managed it well within the film’s budgetary. A pre requisite for most first time directors.

With a near perfect comic timing, “Filmistaan” is an intelligent story. What is the biggest twist and could have been a major challenge for the film, is done behind the veil of night’s darkness.Apart from a weak finish, “Filmistan” is quite enjoyable.

If you ask me, ‘what I liked most in the movie’? I can undoubtedly tell you, the scene where our protagonist is toying with a Kalashnikov rifle innocently in front of the kids, aping various Indian actors. The scene of course ends with our protagonist getting rewarded with a bullet for his performance.

But, we can seek comfort in the saying “all is well if it ends well” here.

screen shot from "Filmistan"

RATING:   3.5/5

3 comments

Posted at 16:14 |  by Frenzy Media

2 States

Arjun Kapoor in "2 States"

"2 states" is based on a popular novel by the same name written by chetan bhagat. The movie as well as its story is quite average. “2 States” is about two management students “Alia Bhat” and “Arjun Kapoor” who fall in love while studying together. Both of them belong to average middle class families from two diverse states. Alia Bhat is Tamilian Brahmin whereas Arjun Kapoor is a Punjabi boy from Delhi. A decision to get married doesn’t go down too well with their disapproving families. Unlike conventional antagonist, their biggest adversary in this movie is their acute cultural dissimilarity.

If you scratch the story construct slightly, you will detect two subtle things wittingly or unwittingly this movie propagates. Social acceptance of inter caste marriages among youth and, stiff reluctance of middle class Indian families to inter caste marriages. “2 states” exploits these conflicting attitudes.

Alia Bhat in South Indian attire

A marvelous performance from Alia Bhat as a cute and vivid south Indian girl. Arjun kapoor has definitely matured as an actor and looked more confident in his hesitant Punjabi boy’s role. 

But, I must admit, Arjun Kapoor coming every now and then on screen and narrating himself was quite irritating and jerky.

"Alia must dare and defy herself to do more challenging roles."

Binod Pradhan

Ravati

Movie is shot well and the credit must be given to cinematographer Binod Pradhan who has shot movies like “Devdas”, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” and “Rang De Basanti” in the past.

Revati looked like an ideal choice and exhibited her supremacy with a graceful and credible performance. Amrita Singh was good apart from few exaggerated bits which even a loud Punjabi character couldn’t justify.

But, the star of the movie was indeed Alia Bhat. With that vivacity of youth and charm of innocence, what could possibly go wrong?

With hits like Karan Johar’s “Student of the year” and Imtiaz Ali’s “Highway”, Alia Bhat is climbing the success ladder quite fast. But, she must tread carefully as in most of the movies she is offered, her characters strike prominent similarities. This is how far her charming looks and innocent smile is going to take her. If Alia Bhat wants to grow further as an actress, she must dare and defy herself to do more challenging roles.

Arjun kapoor's upcoming movie "Finding Fanny" with Deepika padukone slated to release later this year.

Official trailer of "Finding Fanny"

1 comment

Posted at 23:33 |  by Frenzy Media