Tanhaji review: "Ajay Devgn strikes gold both as actor & producer!!!"

If one is to observe carefully, there has been a steady stream of movies inspired from history in the past couple of years. The latest to join the bandwagon is "Tanhaji" based on the life of the Tanaji Malusare, the military chief of Chhatrapati Shivaji. There is no doubt that movies like these gives us a glimpse of many unknown heroes even if many of the events will not have been as dramatic as recreated on celluloid. Anywaz I was certainly intrigued by Saif' being cast as the antagonist & was more than eager to know whether it was a performance on par with his Langda Tyagi???

The Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji (Sharad Kelkar) was steadily becoming a force that the Mughals had come to fear. The Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb (Luke Kenny) decided to make his displeasure known by sending an enormous army with Mirza Raje Jai Singh (Yuri Suri). As feared, the Marathas failed to hold ground & Shivaji had to sign the Treaty of Purandar whereby he had to surrender 23 of his forts. Aurangzeb's ambition to expand his empire to the South made him decide to choose Kondhana as his capital in the region. In order to ensure that his plans were put to action, he annoints his trusted soldier Udaybhan Singh Rathore (Saif Ali Khan) as the commander of the region & asks him to do the needful. However, the Marathas werent going to be a silent spectator to this & they decided to orchestrate a strong response under the commander ship of Tanhaji (Ajay Devgn). This led to the Battle of Sinhagad & how it eventually panned out forms the crux of the movie.

This is Om Raut's directorial debut in Bollywood after his critically acclaimed Marathi movie "Lokmanya Ek Yug Purush". He has penned the script in the company of Prakash Kapadia & both of them have done a fine job in ensuring that the audience is kept interested. Raut has done justice to the script as he creates a captivating canvas with ample use of CGI. If at all there is a flaw, I kinda feel the characterization of Saif as Udaybhan could have been different. He seemed to be more or less like Ranveer Singh's Khilji in "Padmaavat" be it in the body language & appearance. The final showdown between Saif & Ajay was damn good which will surely generate a lot of cheers. Keiko Nakahara deserves praise for the visuals however the same cant be said about the music though the BGM by Sandeep Shirodkar was impressive.

It's been quite a while since we have seen Ajay in a meaty role & he was bang on as the protagonist. However, my favourite was undoubtedly Saif who was excellent as Udaybhan & showcases his negative side with aplomb. Kajol might not have had much screen time but she made her presence felt & the on screen chemistry that she shared with her husband was excellent. As for the rest of the cast, I felt Sharad Kelkar was an apt choice for Shivaji along with Luke Kenny as Aurangzeb. Both of them have done justice to their roles.

Verdict:  There is no doubt that the movie will appeal to the audience coz of the manner it is taken ensuring that the story is told at a reasonable pace. It has already collected 100 C at the box office & seems poised to collect more. In short, do check it out!!!

Rating: 2.75/5

Regards...Ben

Darbar review: "Thalaiva rocks but Murugadoss doesnt!!!"

A fortnight into 2020 & we had the first major release in the form of A R Murugadoss's "Darbar" which featured our Thalaiva. The Superstar is here to lighten up the Pongal celebrations & we can rest assured that he would certainly do that which the trailers also seemed to confirm. But from a personal point of view, I didnt quite find the trailer unique in the sense it is bindaas stuff but nothing that we haven't seen before. Anywaz I hoped that Murugadoss would be sensible enough to make utmost use of Thalaiva's stardom by inserting a credible story line. So is that what eventually happened???

On the behest of the Home Ministry, Aaditya Arunachalam IPS (Rajnikanth) was asked to flush out the Mumbai underworld scum. Being the upright officer that he was, he took up the challenge with a vengeance & dealt with the gangsters with an iron fist. As expected, this got him into trouble with the Human Right Commission but he ensured that they bent to his demands. Soon enough, he gets his hands on Ajay Malhotra (Prateik Babbar) who was the kingpin in the drugs & prostitution market. But his father, industrialist Vinod Malhotra's (Nawab Shah) influence meant that he didnt have to serve time in jail. To make matters worse, the Govt itself applied pressure on Aaditya to go easy on Ajay's case which the former refused to adhere to. So how does Aaditya manage to outsmart everyone???

A R Murugadoss has been in the industry for two decades now & has numerous hits to his name. However, he never had the opportunity to direct Thalaiva until "Darbar" came along which he himself had penned down. There is no doubt that the movie is a celebration of Thalaiva's style & stardom though not quite upto the level of "Petta". As far as the script is concerned, I certainly felt this was the weakest since "Linga". The scenes with his on-screen daughter Nivetha Thomas was endearing while the ones with Nayanthara felt unwanted. On the technical side, Santhosh Sivan was fantastic as usual with his cinematography while Anirudh churned out some chart busters. However, Sreekar Prasad ought to have trimmed many sequences. 

Thalaiva was on song as the bad ass cop & was electrifying as usual. This was his first police officer role in 27 years since "Pandiyan" and hence it was refreshing to see him in that character. Nivetha Thomas has done a fine job, Suniel Shetty was ideal as the antagonist but he was barely used while Nayanthara was not even required. As for the rest of the cast, they did their parts aptly.

Verdict: About a week have passed since the movie has hit the screens & it has set the box office on fire with world wide gross collections close to 200 C. This is in addition to the 220 C that it garnered from its pre-release business. In effect, it has galloped away to a monstrous hit. There is no doubt that Thalaiva has rocked but I certainly felt Murugadoss barely gave much thought to the story line. Naturally the next question is, does a story line actually matter??? Hmm..I certainly believe so though when we see collections like these many might think otherwise. In short, there are lots to cheer if you are a Rajini fan!!!

Rating: 2.25/5

Regards...Ben