Well Done Abba - A 'Well' Made Satire on Indian Politics

Shyam Benegal is known for his feel-good films. After Sajjanpur, he comes up with another rural India story, but a satire this time on the Indian Politics and corruption. This time its based in a small AP village of Chikatpally. Boman Irani plays Armaan Ali and Rahman Ali, who are twin brothers, but are totally unlike each other. Armaan Ali is a God-fearing honest chauffeur who works in Mumbai, whereas Rahman Ali keeps stealing and doing other unsocial things in the village, along with his wife Salma, played by Ila Arun. They both take care of the daughter of Armaan Ali - Muskaan (Minisha Lamba). Armaan returns to village to find a suitable groom for Muskaan, only to find that the water situation in village is really bad. So, he decides to make a 'Bawdi' (a well), so that it would help him suffice the needs of water and also irrigate his fields. But, only later does he come to know that it is not as simple as he had thought it to be. The corrupt government officials, the pending works - all sum up his agitation and he finally decides to give up. But, Muskaan, being educated, shows him a way to mend the government officials. The performances by each and every cast member is really good. Boman Irani in his Hyderabadi accent brought back some old memories of Mehmood, he was outstanding in both of his roles. Minishha Lamba was a surprise - after Yahaan and Shaurya, she comes up with an equally good performance in this one. Ila Arun, Sameer Dattani, Ravi Kishen and Sonali Kulkarni live up to their roles. If only the script was well paced and some of the scenes were not repetitive, it would have been more entertaining. That is the only difference between Sajjanpur and this one, the former was far more entertaining and had some really interesting characters, unlike few selected characters here. I'd still give it a 3.5/5 for the feel-good factor.

LSD - Dibakar Continues His Awesome Form

Dibakar Banerjee is known for making movies which are unconventional and yet, have pretty good content. But, with LSD, apart from being unconventional, he goes for something which has been rarely experimented in Bollywood. India's premiere digital film, which means its been shot completely in security cameras, hand-held cameras and hidden cams. The film has 3 stories, and as the title indicates - the first story deals with love, second with sex and last with dhokha. All the 3 stories are different in their own storyline, but the part which I loved was their connection with each other. Most of the cast is new, but the director has chosen them well. All the three stories were brilliantly handled, thanks to the cinematography. Among all the 3 stories, I loved the first one, which is titled 'Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna'. I loved the female lead of this story, she is really pretty, and suited the role perfectly. The last story was pretty common, like the casting couch thing which generally goes on film industries. The second one dealt with MMS scandal and porn industry. Some scenes are disturbing, but the originality of the story and brilliant performances make up to it. Plus, these are some things which actually happen, so hats off to Dibakar for showing the truth behind the scandals. I'd give it a 3.5 stars.

My Name is Khan - Beautifully Crafted, SRK at his best!

The one mistake that I did, for this movie, was that I went with high expectations. Well, I don't say it was bad, but if I had gone blank, I'd have been more satisfied. The movie kicks off with SRK being detained in the airport, for chanting and acting weird by Security officials. After being released, SRK looks back at his life, and writes his whole journey in a diary, addressing Mandira (Kajol), his wife. He then begins his journey to meet the President of US, to say that he is a Muslim and, he is not a terrorist. Since, he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, he finds difficulty in interacting with people, can't tolerate noisy environment and is scared of yellow color. In the first half, when Khan works for his brother Zakir, in selling beauty products, he was so sweet and honest, that I came up with the tagline - Rizwan Khan - Salesman of the Year. Well, I won't go much into the whole story in here. But, it basically deals with the condition of Muslims pre-9/11 and post-9/11, as is mentioned in the movie, just like how B.C. and A.D. were made. The subject is dealt with maturity, and is really heart-touching at many places. Karan Johar finally gets out of the lovey-dovey cinema into sensible one. And, what a way to begin. He has kept in mind with many finer details, considering the verses from Holy Qura'an, even Hadith, for that matter. I do wonder, if non-Muslims will understand them, but they've been dealt keeping everyone in mind. One friend of mine asked me, as to why SRK carries stones all the time with him, which I replied him, was for chanting verses from Quran, called Tazbih. The second half gets a bit draggy, but its not boring at any instance, though.

The thing which I really liked was the casting - Zarina Wahab, Sonya Jehan, Jimmy Shergill, Tanay Chedda - all perfectly suited in their roles. Kajol is always so natural, she delivers it with so much ease. Its such a pleasure watching her after so many days. Shah Rukh delivers one of the best performances of his career, the one with the likes of his Chak De and Swades performance. No one else would've been able to do this, other than him. With the collections rising everywhere throughout the world, this movie is gonna go real big, and very far. FOX Pictures, Karan Johar and Red Chillies have definitely got it right this time. I'd give it a rating of 3.75/5. I hope no one minds .25 denominations. :)

Rann - Eye-opener, with powerful performances.

There's always one thing with RGV's movies, they either fail miserably, or go on becoming huge hits. There are few of his movies, which are just average. Well, Rann can be classified under the latter category. Everything works for him in Rann. The script is powerful, portraying the media business, and the politics involved in it. I really wanna give credit for the casting, everyone fits perfectly in their role. Amitabh Bachchan is brilliant in the movie, especially in that last speech of his, which supposedly was shot at a stretch for 13 minutes, without any retakes. Hats off to him for that, only an actor of his caliber can do that. Sudeep, who plays Amitabh's son, Jai, is equally good. His voice is as powerful as Amitabh, but he still needs to work on his Hindi accent (guess what! He hails from Shimoga, my hometown, proud of that!). The first half of the movie revolves around him. Riteish Deshmukh is just getting better with every film, he's matured here and gives stiff competition to other actors, especially in the second half of the film. Paresh Rawal, playing the role of opposition leader is brilliant, I am seeing him playing a serious role, after long time. Mohnish Behl plays the head of rival news channel, he carries it off with ease. Rajat Kapoor playing industrialist, and son-in-law of Amitabh Bachchan also does his role well. Female actors like Gul Panag, Neetu Chandra, Suchitra Krishnamurthy and Simone Singh, also do a good job, although they don't have much to do in here. Even though its a huge cast, the script holds up all the characters together, and thats what works for this movie. The one thing, which I was disappointed with was the music of the film, there was no need of putting songs in the background. Take for example, the lyrics of this song "mera channel dekhna, aur uski TRP badhana". I mean, why the world, would you make a song like that. But since its an RGV movie, you can't expect much from the music scene, the music is most of the time, disastrous. I'd still recommend the movie. I'd give it a 3.5/5.

Ishqiya - It makes you fall in love with it!

There are some movies, which you know are going to be good. Right from the time, when I first saw its trailer, I'd a feeling its gonna be good. And, it did live up to my expectations. Vishal Bhardwaj never disappoints, whether as a director or a producer, like in this one. He has even written the script, along with the director, Abhishek Chaubey. The movie is set in a village around Gorakhpur town of UP. So, all the language employed in the movie is basically the bhaiyya type Hindi and Urdu. If you're not so familiar with it, then you won't be able to understand half of the dialogues, which is the best thing in the film. It is similar to the language used in Omkara, but with addition of Urdu, since the characters portrayed are Muslims. Babban (Arshad Warsi) and Khalu Jan (Naseeruddin Shah) are petty thieves, who are caught by Mushtaq for fleeing with money. To evade him, they end up coming to their friends house, who supposedly died in a bomb blast. So, they meet his wife Krishna, played by Vidya Balan. They both fall for her, but she double traps them in kidnapping an industrialist to get money and discover the truth about her husband's death.

The casting is superb. Vidya Balan, with a never done before kind of role, is just awesome. She is very natural in her character. Arshad Warsi is what I loved in the film. His one-liners were hilarious, like "Sheikh, khud ka dekh", "Tumhara pyaar pyaar, aur mera pyaar sex" and many others throughout the movie which were catchy. Naseeruddin Shah carries off his role with ease, he does most of the talking through his expressions, thats what I love about him. He's this one guy who can convey so many things, without even saying anything. The songs were very situational and were picturised perfectly. I especially liked the video of Dil to bachcha hai. Go for it, at any cost. I'd rate it 4/5.