It's been quite an eventful Christmas for the various film industries as we had big banner releases that had taken the box office by storm. Well I have already penned my opinion about them & I thought to make use of that holiday season to pen my views about some of the movies that I had watched but didn't have the time to write about them. This writeup is about many of the Bollywood movies that I had watched in the last six months of 2023. So without further ado, here it goes.
Animal: "Sandeep takes violence to the repulsive level!!!"
Even before the release of the movie, it was the talk of the town since Sandeep Reddy had announced that the violence & misogyny would be manifold compared to his earlier blockbuster, "Kabir Singh". Well he has been true to his word as it was just way too much for me, to the point that it felt repulsive & that certainly affected my viewing appearance irrespective of the monstrous numbers that it continues to garner at the box office.
The script that Sandeep had penned is based on the obsessive adoration that a son had for his father & the extent to which he goes to showcase that, so that the latter would be proud of him. The protagonist is Vijay Singh (Ranbir Kapoor), the son of the billionaire, Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor) was unable to find the pride that he had hoped for from his father & circumstances panned out in such a way that he was sent packing to boarding school abroad. His father's attitude remained the same even after he returned coz of his issues with his brother in law & decision to marry his school crush, Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna). But their relationship equation changes when there is a murder attempt on his father & Vijay returns to take charge.
The no-holds barred attitude of the protagonists is the signature style of Sandeep & he takes it several notches up in his latest outing. Even as I found the violence nonsensical & abhorrent after a point of time, I do have to admit that the cinematic vision of Sandeep is quite unique and deserves praise, though I dont know how many will embrace it. Technically, I felt the movie was impressive be it the imaginative action sequences (however, the fight between Vijay & the masked assailants with the axe in a corridor seemed like an extravagant sequence inspired from LJP's "Nayakan"), Amit Roy's excellent cinematography & the impressive variety music with 'Papa Meri Jaan' rendered by Sonu Nigam being my favourite. At the same time, Sandeep could have kept the movie much shorter as it does take a toll on our patience.
Among the younger lot, Ranbir Kapoor is undoubtedly one of the finest actor in Bollywood & as Vijay, he was bleedy good at it. His portrayal of the obsessive son who would go to any lengths was spot on & giving him apt support was Anil Kapoor, who was equally impressive. Bobby Deol did his part well though surprisingly, it was more of an extended guest appearance while Rashmika & Tripti Dimri were ok.
Verdict: As per box office reports, it has made a humongous 880 odd crores which would have made the makers go laughing to the bank. Though the cast & crew did impress me, the screenplay as such felt more like an over dosage of testosterone which seemed to go on & on for close to 201 minutes!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Sam Bahadur: "A brilliant Vicky Kaushal makes this biopic worthwhile!!!
I have always loved biopics but not many in our Indian film industry has always been able to justice to it as they are invariably not aware where to draw the line between reality and cinematic liberties. Hence when the biopic of India's first field marshal, Sam Manekshaw was announced, I was hopeful as the project was being helmed by Meghna Gulzar who has already made a name for herself with some impressive movies to her credit.
The movie unfolds with events from 1934 where Sam is part of the first batch of cadets to be trained at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. Subsequently, Meghna & Shantanu Shrivastava has explored all the major events in his life with the focus being on the influence that he had on his men & the political circles. Kudos to both of them that in terms of a character sketch of that legend, it was spot on as we are given a proper view about who he was & what made him so charismatic. They made sure that jingoism & blood seeking war cries are not squeezed into the story which made it for a much grounded viewing experience. At the same time, that would have made many feel that it didn't quite have the punch that we usually expect from such flicks.
Could there has been a best actor to portray Sam? After having watched it, I can confidently say that no one else could have been better than Vicky at it. He was literally mind boggling as his gait, posture, expression & diction were just like the legendary field marshal. It would be a shame if he isn't recognized for his efforts as it was certainly one of the finest of the year. The Dangal sisters were both part of the project with both Sanya Malhotra (as Sam's wife, Siloo) & Fatima Sana (as Indira Gandhi) having done justice to their parts. There were a plethora of other artists, but none of them quite stood out.
Verdict: The biopic as such comes across as rather bland to be frank but Vicky Kaushal's brilliant performance makes it worthwhile. So do check it out!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
12th Fail: "Among the very best of the year!!!"
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a name that doesn't need much introduction after all he has been part of some of the celebrated movies for close to 50 years such as "Parinda", "1942: A Love Story", "Munna Bhai" series. Over the past two decades, his directorial ventures has been far & few. Hence when his latest movie "12th Fail" was announced which he had penned based on Anurag Pathak's book by the same name, it generated expectations . The story is the real life account of Manoj Kumar Sharma who rose from the struggles that life threw at him to become an IPS officer.
From a cinematic point of view, it is a predictable story about an underdog but the manner in which Vinod had infused life in those proceedings without resorting to clichés is what made this movie endearing. It is essentially an emotional movie but rather than give a melodramatic feel to it, he infuses humour, inspiration & determination to the characters and sequences that it keeps us in good spirits. On the technical side it is neatly done be it Rangarajan Ramabadran's cinematography & Shantanu Moitra's music.
But the heart & soul of the movie is Vikrant Massey's brilliant performance as the protagonist. The manner in which he portrayed the innocence, determination & earnestness of the character was spot on as we are kept engrossed in his journey. Each & every artist have done utmost justice to their roles be it Anshumaan Pushkar as Gauri bhayya, Medha Shankar as Shraddha, Anand Joshi as Pritam, Harish Khanna & Geeta Aggrawal as his parents, Priyanshu Chatterjee as DSP etc.
Verdict: Undoubtedly, one of the best movies of the year which proved that Vinod still has the skill to know the pulse of the audience. To add to that, Vikrant's performance made it even better!!!
Rating: 3.75/5
Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani: "Karan Johan mixes opulence with content!!!"
It is no secret that Karan Johar's movies are taken with a pinch of salt with one section of the society warming up to it while the rest abhorring it. Well the reason for that divide is primarily because of the glitz and glamour that he puts into it without much content, due to which many don't quite relate to it. However, that doesn't imply that he is not a good story teller coz we have seen him do it (albeit in his own extravagant style). His latest release as always felt more like opulence on the outside, but it did have content as well.
The script was penned by Ishita Moitra, Shashank Khaitan & Sumit Roy is essentially about the cultural clash between a Punjabi & Bengali family. The Punjabi family were the Randhavas who owned the famous Dhanalakshmi sweets named after their matriarch (Jaya Bachchan). They were a family whose traditions and mind-set were still stuck in the past. She ran the business with her son, as her husband, Kanwal (Dharmendra) suffered from amnesia & was confined to the wheelchair. Incidentally, when Kanwal utters the name, 'Jamini'; his grandson, Rocky (Ranveer Singh) decides to locate her in the hope that it would his grandfather's condition. That search eventually led him to Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhatt), a renowned news anchor whose grandmother happened to be Jamini (Shabana Azmi). The influence that it has on both the families as a result of this is what this movie is about.
Apart from the usual Karan's film making template, the characters also poses credible questions on various topics such as patriarchy, cultural chauvinism, social conditioning, women empowerment & gender equality. However, it is not necessarily path breaking coz we have come across many movies in the past that has done it & that too in a much subtle manner. It kind of reminded me of being a variant of Mohan Raja's "Santhosh Subramaniam". Despite the effort to bring in political correctness, the execution of the project still felt old-school & at close to 3 h, it is definitely a tad too long.
On the technical side, Manush Nandan's visuals were fine while the rest were average at best. The performances were pretty good to be honest with both Ranveer & Alia doing justice to what their characters demanded. Both Dharmendra & Shabana were fine while Toti Roy & Churni Ganguli as Alia's parents were good though Jaya Bachchan's role didn't offer as much as scope as we know she is capable of.
Verdict: Apart from making big bucks at the box office, it is also a movie that does have sensible content packaged in a typical glossy Karan Johan cinematic style. In short, it is worth a try; though if you don't like the glitz & over the top opulence of his movies, then don't bother!!!
Rating: 2/5
Tiger 3: "Despite Salman's presence, it lacked the punch of the previous installments!!!"
The third installment of the 'Tiger' series was one of the most awaited movies of the year & the hype was heightened after it was announced that it would be part of the YRF Spy Universe, not to forget the much celebrated cameo of Salman in "Pathaan". Anyway the movie did roaring business at the box office making it the fifth highest Hindi grosser of 2023. However, there is no doubt that Maneesh Sharma's directorial effort was the weakest among the three.
This time around the story unfolds in 1999 where Zoya (Katrina Kaif / Gurket Kaur) is witness to her father, ISI agent Rehan Nazar (Aamir Bashir) being killed in a bomb blast. Subsequently, his protege, Aatish Rehman (Emraan Hashmi) supports her & motivates her to join the ISI. The movie cuts forward to the present day where Tiger (Salman) is called upon by RAW to rescue his former handler, Gopi (Ranvir Shorey) who was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Though Tiger manages to rescue Gopi, the latter succumbs to his injuries but not before revealing that Zoya does have some sinister hand in the dealings.
Apart from bank rolling the project, Aditya Chopra has penned the script & as a whole, it looked interesting since it was about the internal crisis in Pakistan rather than the typical Indo-Pak friction. But Sridhar Raghavan's screenplay failed to add the necessary punch to bank on the core thought & what we are served with is a standard template of numerous action sequences in various locations. The action choreography, production value & Anay Goswami's cinematography were top notch with the CGI effects also deserving praise. Even when the screenplay falters, the performance of both Salman & Katrina were impressive in both the emotional and action sequences. However, Emraan Hashmi was the pick among the lot while Simran & Revathi did their parts aptly. As for SRK's cameo, it was good though the impact wasnt as much as Salman in "Pathaan" due to lack of the novelty factor.
Verdict: On the basis of the story, it definitely under performed due to an extremely average screenplay. It is however still worth a watch & that is because of the performances!!!
Rating: 2.25/5
The Great Indian Family: "Vicky's earnest performance fails to salvage the movie!!!"
More often than not, Vicky Kaushal has always stood out whenever his movie hits the screens irrespective of the fate of it at the box office. One such example is Vijay Acharya's "The Great Indian Family" that turned out to be a dud for the Yash Raj Films. To be frank, it wasn't as bad as the final numbers were; though the response from the audience would have reminded Vijay & Aditya of "Thugs of Hindostan", their previous venture together.
This time around, Vijay had chose to pen his thoughts around the need to embrace diversity & religious camaraderie. Incidentally, we are living in an age where questions are repeatedly raised about the socio-political situation in the country. Hence this kind of a story was a welcome change from the over dosage of violence that we have been treated to in pretty much every other movie. Billu (Vicky) was the undisputed king of devotional songs & was son of Siyaram Tripathi (Kumud Mishra), the most respected priest in their region. Everything seemed to be moving along fine until he received a letter that claimed that he belonged to a different family & religion.
It is essentially a comedy drama where Vijay tries to convey his point as to how similar people indeed are, though they might have different religious beliefs and customs. In terms of the content, I am not quite sure as to what people actually expected coz as a light hearted take on the subject at hand; I felt Vijay did do justice. On the technical side, Ayananka Bose's visuals were fine while the rest doesn't deserve special mention. As I mentioned earlier, Vicky has done a fine job with credible support from Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa etc, though I dont think they were properly utilised.
Verdict: Didn't feel it was as bad as the box office numbers indicated.
Rating: 2/5
Mission Raniganj: "No rescue for Akshay from another failure!!!"
The last time around Tinu Suresh Desai had directed a movie, it had won Akshay his maiden National Award for "Rustom". With all due respect to Akki, I still fail to understand as to how he was awarded for it. Anyway their latest film together was about the Raniganj Coalfield Collapse of 1989 in which 65 trapped miners were rescued by the brilliance of the mining engineer, Jaswant Singh Gill. The screenplay was prepared by Vipul K Rawal & to be absolutely blunt, there is nothing novel about it.
There is no need for a synopsis for the story coz it is pretty much standard affair whereby we have Jaswant Singh (Akshay) up against a bunch of government officials who are egoistic and lazy. They are prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that Jaswant's plan fails & the public has no faith on him, while his confident wife sing praises about his valour & selflessness. Anywaz Jaswant proves his detractors wrong & becomes the saviour of the masses. There is literally nothing more in the story apart from what I had mentioned & that is exactly the problem with this movie.
The story, the characters & everything related to the mission is just cliched stuff as no effort has been put in by the makers to research more into the incident. Tinu failed to provide the excitement & tension that a mission of this magnitude ought to have given the audience. None of the technical aspects was worth mentioning & even the CGI effects was damn average. As for performances, Akshay goes through the motions with a pathetic artificial beard, Kumud Mishra was wasted, Pawan Malhotra was fine while the rest of the cast were average at best.
Verdict: The inability of the makers to make a meaningful biopic that does complete justice to the protagonist still continues to plague the industry. As expected, the audience did not give any rescue for the makers at the box office!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
The Vaccine War: "Deserving tribute to the scientific community with undeniable shades of propaganda!!!"
When Vivek Agnihotri announced his latest project, I was a bit sceptical as to what to expect since I wasn't a huge fan of his "Kashmir Files". However, I still decided to give it a try as it was about the scientific community that had tirelessly for the development of Covaxin, India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Being a senior scientist & having worked with mRNA vaccines, I was keen to know as to how it was captured on celluloid.
The movie is based on Dr. Balram Bhargava's 'Going Viral', the former Director General of ICMR who spearheaded the vaccine development mission. It is literally about the challenges & struggles the scientists at ICMR & NIV had to go through as they raced against time to get the vaccine rolled out. Vivek deserves appreciation for capturing it pretty well & also include references regarding the attitude of pharma companies, WHO etc., towards India. On the whole, this time & effort that he invests into this aspect of this story was impressive.
However, there are a couple of points that stuck out as a sore thumb which was a clear indication of political propaganda. There was an urge to emphasise on the point that the scientific community was given the freedom to perform under the new Government while discarding the fact that our scientists & the research facilities have done praise worthy work in the past as well. The line between raising legitimate questions & vested interested are blurred here, whereby it is made to appear that the scientific editor Rohini Singh (Raima Sen) asked questions only with the intention to show them in poor light coz of foreign sponsors.
As for the cast & crew, almost all of them have done justice to their roles be it Nana Patekar, Pallavi Joshi, Girija Oak, Nivedita Bhattacharya etc. to name a few. Udaysingh Mohite's cinematography was fine while the other departments also neatly did their parts.
Verdict: I might be a bit biased but I certainly felt Vivek has done a fine job & given a befitting tribute to the scientists. At the same time, it still seems that he wants to emphasise on his political inclinations!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Jaane Jaan: "Does justice to the adaptation!!!"
How often have we come across inspired or copied Indian movies that give credit to the original? To be honest, not so often. However, Sujoy Ghosh who has given us movies like "Kahaani" etc., announced that his latest movie is based on Keigo Higashino's popular Japanese novel 'The Devotion of Suspect X'. Since there are quite a few movies that were adapted from it, I presume most of you would have a fairly good idea about the story.
The movie unfolds in Kalimpong, where Maya (Kareena Kapoor) is a single mother who runs a cafeteria. Her neighbour was a respected Mathematics professor, Naren Vyas (Jaideep Ahlawat) who had a crush on her though his reclusive nature prevented him from expressing it. Things take a turn when Maya's abusive ex-husband, Ajit (Saurabh Sachdeva) from whom she had fled many years before, shows up at her place & threatens to take her daughter. This leads to a tussle between them & eventually led to Ajit being killed. At this juncture, Naren steps in to help her & whether they manage to outsmart the police is what is explored in the rest of the movie.
All the artists who were involved in this project have done utmost justice to their roles be it Kareena, Jaideep, Vijay Verma & Saurabh. Jaideep has been going from strength to strength after each movie & over here as the introverted Naren, he was bang on in his body language. Kareena effectively conveyed the tension of the character while Vijay was spot on as the intelligent cop. The technical aspects were impressive as well as Avik Mukhopadhyay's frames & Urvashi Saxena editing ensured that the thrill & tension was sustained throughout the movie. Kudos to Sujoy for the subtle changes that he incorporated in the screenplay, since most of us are already aware as to what is in store at the end. However, he manages to make sure that the twists & the reason behind it still had an element of freshness to it.
Verdict: The audience had already given its verdict as it emerged as the most viewed Hindi movie on Netflix of 2023. I thoroughly enjoyed what Sujoy had created & kudos to both the cast & crew for a job well done. Do check it out!!!
Rating: 3.5/5
Mast Mein Rehna Ka: "Delightful performances in a feel good movie!!!"
With numerous OTT platforms, movies having a direct release in them is a common affair nowadays & Vijay Maurya's latest release also happened to be one of them. It had released on Amazon Prime last month & he had written this comedy drama in collaboration with Payal Arora. It is essentially about two elderly individuals who find companionship in each other that lights up their lonely lives.
Kamath (Jackie Shroff) has been a widower for quite a while & wished that his days were numbered than having to lead this mundane life. Incidentally, his life takes a turn when his apartment is burgled & he decides to find someone with whom he could strike a connection. That search led him to Parkash Handa (Neena Gupta) whose apartment also gets similarly burgled & the two strike a chord, though their demeanors were poles apart. How that friendship becomes a source of hope and happiness for their life ahead is what Vijay tries to portray here.
It is essentially a feel good movie that gives us a smile as the two couples show that we need to forge ahead even when solitude and adversity threaten to take away our zest for life. Each of the four individuals are from different walks of life, who find companionship in each other coz of similar challenges that life throw at them. All the technical aspects were handled neatly & the dialogues were meaningful. Jackie was top notch as this was the best performance that I have seen from him in ages. Neena Gupta was impressive as always while Abhishek Chauhan & Monika Panwar were good. Even Rakhi Sawant did her part aptly.
Verdict: A feel good movie with some delightful performances makes it a good watch!!!
Rating: 3/5
Regards...Ben
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