JAIL - Movie Review : Too dark & predictable to be liked by all (Review by Bobby Sing)

Madhur Bhandarkar is one of those rare talented directors who has mastered the art of making movies out of the newspapers. Continuing his series of films based on real life instances, he strikes again with a dark, uninviting and somehow upsetting movie on an unconventional subject of Jail and the life of its inmates.

Before going into further details, one thing you have to keep in mind before watching “Jail” is that it’s not the usual witty and gossipy kind of subject chosen by Madhur this time. As suggested by the title itself, the theme is more cruel, dark and depressing which is also in complete contrast to Madhur’s previous famous films. It is even more harsh than his “Traffic Signal” having no room for any comic, humor or sex references. So if you have opted for the movie looking for some great entertaining stuff then you are definitely sitting in the wrong theater.

But at the same time “Jail” is also not at par with Bhandarkar’s earlier highly appreciated works. For the first time he has opted for a completely predictable and seen before kind of script which has not got any shock treatment for which Madhur is more famous for. The story is anybody’s guess where a young boy is wrongly framed under a drug case and has to spend a few painful years in Jail for a crime which he had never committed. Now the problem here is that the miserable ambience of Jail and the life in it has been already shown in many movies before. The grouping system in the convicts, usual fights between the inmates, the use of money for their personal comforts and the underworld operating from the jail, everything has been there on the screen umpteen times before Madhur’s elaborate movie on the subject. So there is nothing new in store for the viewer, which usually is the first expectation from a Madhur Bhandarkar project. And that’s where “Jail” fails to deliver to a great extent.

However, the director’s excellence is still evident in a few well conceived sequences related with some important characters in the script. Especially the sub-plots of Manoj Bajpayi (Nawab) & Rahul Singh (Ghani Bhai) are brilliantly handled by Madhur in his famous trade mark style (But I found no justification in Nawab killing his own kid brother without any reason). Madhur even explains the relationship between Monsoons and Jails in a very impressive manner. Besides this the narration showcases the questionable process of law and the greedy lawyers operating freely in this corrupt ongoing system. In addition to the above, the director also incorporates the real life inspiration angle in the movie taking references from the famous BMW Hit & Run case, Cricket bookies now found in every city and the hidden truth of homosexuality in the Jails.

Apart from his much applauded direction, the other department in which Madhur has got a great understanding or instinct is the Casting. He is simply perfect in his choice of actors for a particular role. For instance Neil Nitin Mukesh as the main protagonist, Manoj Bajpai as Nawab, Rahul Singh as Ghani, Arya Babbar as the influential inmate, Mughda Ghodse as the helpful lover & Atul Kulkarni as the savior lawyer, every one suits to their respective roles so perfectly. Undoubtedly the best act comes from Neil as the innocent helpless boy, followed by Manoj Bajapai giving a worth watching performance as per his reputation. Neil impresses with his superb expressions depicting the solitude and sufferings faced by his lonely character. On the other hand, Manoj speaks more through his effective stares and exceptional body language. The climax is the best part of the film which has got the Bhandarkar power in it but I think the movie could have been a bit shorter by few minutes to make it a more engrossing watch.

The script has got no scope for any full length songs. Still there are few quick numbers added into the story which actually don’t serve any particular purpose. The compositions are not melodious enough to get register and even the Lata Mangeshkar prayer track is not able to move you either emotionally or musically. But the realistic set of prison and cinematography both deserve a prasing mention for their remarkable contribution.

On the whole, “Jail” is too realistic and gloomy to be liked by everyone. Moreover the repetitive and predictable content of the movie will prove to be its main drawback at the box office. It is thought provoking for sure but not after you have left the theater.

Yet there is one moral lesson I concluded from the movie which I would like to share with you all. It gave me the precious insight that…..

“CRIME is the unwanted and illegitimate child of ANGER and we should always take care of the precautions before it gets conceived” - bobbysing

Rating : 2.5 / 5

(Originally Posted at www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI - Movie Review : Ranbir excels but the film doesn't. (Review by Bobby Sing)

One of of my favourite directors Raj Kumar Santoshi,known for his admirable story telling skills returns on the screen with a romantic comedy featuring Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif. There are huge expectations from the three and everyone is looking forward to witness another applaudable comedy on the lines of Santoshi’s highly appreciated “Andaz Apna Apna”. The promos are exciting and the songs are good. Hence, the stage is all set for just another blockbuster of the season from the maker of brilliant movies ranging from “Ghayal” & “Damini” to “Pukar” & “Halla Bol”.

But now after watching the latest project from one of my most admired directors, I remember a phrase which I don’t believe in really, but is often used by the artistic people in the creative field. It is called “CREATIVE BLOCK” which refers to a phase in the life of creative people where they are not able to create as per their own set standards and come up with some shockingly underworked projects which were completely unexpected from a person of their status. “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” exactly falls in that category. Starting with a deliberately created comedy sequence, the movie clearly gives you an idea that it is not going to be what was being expected. And as the clock moves on you realise that this time Santoshi has delivered the weakest movie of his sparkling career.

Surprisingly, the film has got nothing before intermission except the sincere, skillful performance of Ranbir and glamorous looks of Katrina. There is neither any story development in progress nor any well defined characters on the screen as normally seen in the previous works of the director. Till intermission only the love angle is visible to the viewers and one keeps on wondering that where the hell is movie heading towards. Besides this, when the real plot unfolds, it has no surprise element, since you have already guessed it without any serious efforts.

Post interval, with the introduction of few new characters, the movie even slides down further mainly due to its disastrously weak writing. In fact there are only few hilarious scenes having the exclusive Santoshi touch towards the climax of the movie. But even those are very few in quantity, compared to the movie’s enormous promotional campaign emphasizing on comedy. Moreover, the final sequence in the Don’s den is also similar to the one seen in “Andaz Apna Apna” but it greatly lacks in content.

The movie has only one performer throughout and he is Ranbir Kapoor at his best. Giving an excellent notable performance, he simply shows that he knows his job very well. Katrina on the other hand has got nothing great written for her in the script. So she remains there as a pretty face in the movie who his capable of giving much better to a project. The rest of the entire cast completely fails to make any kind of impact on the viewer, which is not a routine kind of feature in a Raj Kumar Santoshi film.

In addition to this, Santoshi also makes many strange and bizarre kind of moves in his current offering which raises enough doubts on his whole hearted involvement in the project. For instance, the confusion over the city in which the story is staged, the short cameo of Salman Khan in the first half, the un-necessary stammering act of both Ranbir & Katrina, the broken English dialogue scene of Ranbir and the surprising entry of a character resembling JESUS towards the end. Actually speaking, all these scenes don’t seem to be directed by the Santoshi we know from so many years (who can also be spotted in a scene with Ranbir). He may not have tasted success in most of his previous projects, but there has never been a BAD Santoshi film as APKGK.

Musically, it does have some good numbers, well arranged by Pritam, which are widely being appreciated by the youth. But the soundtrack is surely going to be affected by the under-performance of the film. Cinematography serves the purpose well but it’s really sad to see that we still have to move on to the hill stations and snow-mountains to film a romantic song featuring the lead. But actually, the main culprit here remains the writing department which takes everything back to the mediocre levels.

In the end, I would like to add that “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” is a very casual kind of effort from one of best directors of Bollywood. It can only be seen for the outstanding contribution of Ranbir. But let’s take this movie as a result of an unproductive phase in the career of an immensely talented director. And let’s pray that he gives us a much better and polished product next time which can stand tall among his other masterpieces of the past.

Rating : 1.5 / 5 (Very unexpected disappointment from one of my favourite film-makers)

(Originally Posted at www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

ALADIN - Movie Review : Nobody learned from the mistake called "Drona". (Review by Bobby Sing)

Last year we had a heavy weight fantasy debacle from the banner of Eros Entertainment called “Drona”. And like a child committing the same mistake repeatedly, this year we have a similar kind of forgettable fantasy movie titled “Aladin”, once again from the same prestigious banner of Eros. Wasn’t there even one thinking mind in the team who could see that they were repeating the same horrendous blunder again leading to a big loss, both on financial and goodwill grounds? Wasn’t there any creative person at all, who could point out that “Aladin” was also having the same distasteful ingredients, which were earlier universally rejected in “Drona” in the very first few days of its release? In addition to this, it was really funny to know that the film based on one of the weakest script ever was in reality a product of "Boundscript Motion Pictures".....Looks like they only took care of the outer binding of the script and just forgot to read into the content.

Anyway, the mistake has been committed and the loss has to be faced by everyone involved in the making of this horrifying experience. Playing with the loving memories of a childhood story which is still fresh in our mature minds, the movie shamelessly lies in the lowest zone of creativity. Hanging in the mid, it is neither an enjoyable fare for the kids, nor a refreshing graphical ride for the youngsters. In other words it seems to be the result of the wandering mind of a director who is simply lost in his own artistic world and damn cares of the entertainment quotient of his final product.

To start with, in my opinion there are two most important and exciting sequences in an “Aladin” movie, which have to be dealt with extra care and creativity. First being the entry and introduction sequence of the Jinn. And second, the content of the three wishes granted to Aladin by the Jinn. Originally the whole movie should revolve around these three granted wishes and their surprising aftereffects. But shockingly neither of the above two sequences have been given the much required importance by the director Sujoy Ghosh. The Jinn simply appears from the cloudy smoke in few seconds and then just starts singing a song along with Aladin and a group of dancers, which is arguably the weirdest conceived sequence of the movie. Besides this, the three wishes are just wasted by Aladin, without any excitement build up or entertainment factor for the viewers.

Moreover the kids keep on waiting for something great to unfold on the screen, each time Aladin is going to say a wish, but nothing happens and post interval the movie moves on to a totally different tale of a Ring Master who is also in search of the magic lamp. Can’t say from where he came into the story all of a sudden as we have not read about any such character in the Aladin story. May be the director wanted to add some spice and thrill into the story with some additional villain characters. But sadly, his move of adding a baddie Ring Master, doesn’t work at all. On the contrary, the bonus track deviates the story from its original theme and takes away the world famous charm of this fantasy story.

In the performance department, except Ritesh Deshmukh, almost everyone goes over the top, acting with hyper reactions and high energy. It seems they acted that way according to the brief given by the director. Yet in bold terms, both Amitabh Bachchan & Sanjay Dutt should include this movie as one of the most regretful projects of their career. Debutant Jacqueline Fernandez is just there for adding some glamour value and she delivers what was being expected from her. But I was unable to figure out why three talented veterans Ratna Pathak Shah, Victor Bannerjee and Mita Vashisht were there in the movie playing completely unimportant roles which didn’t suit them at all. Only Ritesh Deshmukh looked like his character of Aladin on the screen and he is the only one who gives an impressive, controlled and enjoyable performance in the movie.

Musically, it’s another mediocre score from Vishal-Shekhar with no Hit Track as such. Moreover, most of the songs in the movie are deliberately added into the proceedings and could have been easily left out at the editing table itself. In fact it’s only the Cinematography and few graphic sequences in the movie which are able to impress the viewer to some extent. Otherwise it’s a complete disaster from the production team, who didn’t learn any lesson from their own dud “Drona”.

It was indeed sad to see all the valuable resources and hard work going down the drain once again in a useless effort of making an epic fantasy Indian movie. Actually we should stop thinking about competing with Hollywood in the Fantasy genre as it’s not possible to reach the level of “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings” with this kind of mind setup, where a Ginni still has to sing songs along with Aladin.

If a big ship sinks then only the captain gets the blame, who is Sujoy Ghosh in this particular case, solely responsible for this silly & mad fiasco. Along with him both Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt are equally responsible for saying yes to this project and raising the expectation levels of all their children fans in the entire world. The veterans of the industry should understand the responsibility associated with their big names and ideally should take utmost care in selecting a project featuring them in the lead roles. But it doesn’t seem to be the way our Industry works as Bollywood keeps on delivering bad and disgraceful projects at regular intervals year after year and that too with some great confidence on their faces before the release.

In a nutshell, it’s high time that the production houses should rethink upon their working strategies. In clear words, they got to keep full control over their ongoing projects and their over-creative directors in order to save the hard earned money of both the makers and the spectators. Cause we really don’t want to witness any other “Drona” or “Aladin” in the future.

Rating : 1 / 5 (What a loss for everyone!)
(Originally Posted at www.bobbytalkscinema.com)

LONDON DREAMS - Movie Review : A good take on professional jealousy but with a feeble musical score. (Review By Bobby Sing)

Vipul Shah once again returns with his uniform Punjabi flavour & the India-London theme. Taking another step ahead of his “Namaste London”, this time he impressively comes up with a good take on pop singers and the back stage drama in their over famous lives. But in an otherwise well directed, intense and emotional drama, he is sadly not accompanied by an equally enjoyable musical score (as in Namaste London), which was much needed by the subject and its script. So minus the songs and uninspiring music, here we have a well directed movie with some entertaining & enlightening moments and a worth watching climax (again subtracting the last song).

With a story about changing relationships between two childhood friends, “London Dreams” starts with a notable opening dialogue from Ajay Devgan and then moves into the flashback of the same overused fields of Punjab. After a few introductory scenes, a song and 20 minutes into the movie, enters Salman Khan, who simply sets the screen on fire with his superb effortless acting and hilarious comic timing. From here on the film takes off in actual terms giving way to a brilliant in-flight sequence where Salman interacts with the passengers, an airhostess and the security men in his own impeccable style. And then the first half ends with a well conceived on-stage sequence, which successfully excites you enough to see the further developments on the screen.

Post interval the narration moves into more serious matters, showcasing the cut-throat competition between artists, the feeling of jealousy among themselves and the evil games they play to taste success in their professional lives. The emotional conflict between Ajay and Salman further leads to a completely unexpected and splendidly conceived climax which gives new meaning to the spirit of friendship between two artists and childhood friends. In fact the climax sequence of Salman and Ajay at the Railway Station rightly deserves to be applauded for its superb writing and enlightening execution. Salman straight away wins the heart of every single viewer in the theater, coming up with a completely unimaginable solution to the problem existing between the two friends and gives a new meaning to the “Art of Forgiving”. But a whole song after their re-union was not creative or intelligent from any angle and the movie should have ended right at the Railway Station.

Performance wise Salman comes at the top with a great act, which includes comedy, emotion, tragedy and even trauma of a drug addict. Ajay Devgan gives another intense and explosive performance different from his current famous comedy movies. He looks dashing in his rough performer getup, but lacks the youthfulness and body flexibility of a rock artist. In other words, he seems to be quite stiff in his stage acts and moreover his self torture scenes were also not needed at all. They give you the feeling of Deja vu, since these kind of sequences were more seen in the movies of 70s & 80s, like the one in Amitabh’s “Mahaan”. Asin is breath-taking gorgeous and looks much better than “Ghajini”. Her short Sita-Gita act was enjoyable only because she looked equally beautiful in both kind of dresses. Though she didn’t have much to do in the project but she surely has got immense talent in her to be explored. Om Puri is cool and calm in his few scenes and notable dialogues but Ranvijay Singh gives an ok performance in his debut movie. He looked more confident in his “Roadies” act on the small screen. Aditya Roy Kapur, as Ranvijay’s brother is impressive & Brinda Parekh repeats her act of “Corporate”.

It can be said that director Vipul Shah is back with a commendable effort talking about the ugly side of human characters who happen to be stage artists in the current script. But the theme is equally relevant in any business form in this cunning monetary world. Vipul realistically directs few praiseworthy sequences in the movie like the one where Salman transforms two lines of a song in different kind of compositions having different tastes and the worth watching emotional climax scene at the railway station. However, along with these well directed ones, he also delivers a questionable sequence, when all the four members of the band except Ajay freely move out of the Wembley Stadium’s green rooms to the lonely, dark backyards, breaking all the security circles, on the very night of their much awaited performance.

Unfortunately, Vipul majorly faulted on his choice of compositions for a project which entirely talks about a musical band and its members. For such a script based on music itself, the songs and score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is too feeble to get register. There is no melody anywhere in the songs except one or two. In fact the most important song of the movie, which the band plays at their night in the Wembley Stadium, is completely uninspiring and boring. On the other hand the cinematography captures the essence of the subject superbly. The stage sequences and the Wembley have been shot real well along with some great computer graphics.

Conversely, I wondered that if a project is around Punjab and also requires a great amount of Punjabi language, music and feel to be incorporated into it, then why not they hire some actual Punjabi Professionals for the job, who can rightly guide them about the Punjabi dialogues, their pronunciations and the Punjabi melodies in the songs. Why they insist of using people who are no doubt immensely talented but they actually don’t know about the real feel of the soil and its musical requisites. For instance, Salman keeps on calling Ajay as “Bhara” which means brother, with a faulty pronunciation.

In simple words, if the entire actor fraternity in Mumbai can take classes for “Hindi” & “Urdu” languages, then why not they take classes for “Punjabi” when they have to portray the role of a Punjabi character.

Summing up, I would like to say the “London Dreams” just missed out to become a masterpiece flick based on a good subject. It is Salman’s movie all the way, who will appeal to everyone from a city professional to a village farmer. Besides him, the movie and its theme will also appeal to wannabe artists from the younger generation. But it cannot be called a finely polished product as it has many unwanted songs and scenes which could have been easily edited out. And I wish it had some good melodious songs which would have taken the brilliant performances in the movie to another level alltogether.

Rating : 3 / 5
(Originally Posted at www.bobbytalkscinema.com)