KARZZZ : Please leave the Golden Hits of Past alone in their hall of fame.

I had my doubts as the movie started and not only all my doubts were right but the film went even beyond my suspicion. First of all, I am completely not in the favour of re-doing any past hit. This in my opinion simply shows that we are out of ideas now. Secondly, even if you have decided to remake a Hit then at least you should do it in your own style and with little innovations added to it. But “Karzzz” just goes on following the original flick scene after scene. Not only exact scenes but the dialogues are also taken as it is from the Rishi Kapoor starrer. You find Rishi Kapoor echoing in the whole movie and Himesh just looks likes imitating.

Though comparisons are inevitable, but lets drop that and see Karzzz as a movie on its own. In that case also it fails to hold you tight and is not able to create enough excitement and interest in the viewer. Even if I consider it as a first timer who hasn’t seen the original “Karz”, then also I don’t find this version convincing enough. Now, the reasons why I found it, not comparable to the Golden Hit of the past.

One – The Acting. All the participants in the cast are trying to overshadow each other, trying to put up a confident show which is clearly visible. Himesh doesn’t suit the role completely with his strange hair style (who suggested him that?). He looks uncomfortable doing action scenes and the viewer just can digest him doing the fight sequences. What worked in “Aap Ka Suroor” was his image, which is missing in this attempt. Urmila is not the Urmila we have seen in “Ek Hasina Thi”. There is completely a different actress here doing the “Simi Grewal” act. There is a huge confusion in the age gap of the characters. If Himesh has re-incarnated and is 25+ now, In that case Urmila should be atleast 50. But there is no white hair and old age signs and she seems to have the ageless formula with her. Simply undigestible. The debutant Shweta Kumar is sweet, but has a long way to go and may find the road tough in the future. The killing looks of Tina Munim were missing which was the reason why the desired romantic touch was not generated.

Second – The warmth of Durga Khote as the mother was lost since Rohini Hattangiri did it in a highly dramatic way. The emotion of a mother had a great pull in the original which touched you emotionally but you will not find it here.

Third – Where was the lovable act of Pran as “Kabira” and cunning looks of “Premnath” as Sir Juda? Danny as “Kabira” is simply a miscast and his love for Hindi movies could not strike a chord. He was doing just another role in the movie with nothing special. Gulshan Grover as Sir Juda is also wasted as he is not given the required time to prove himself.

Fourth – The Background Music – In the original, a central character was the background score which pulled you in. That is not there in the musical man Himesh’s version of the classic. I really expected the background music to be chilling but was disappointed.

Fifth – The Songs – Himesh always comes up with catchy beats and dance numbers which can be easily played in the Discos and dance floors. But a subject like” Karz” needs more emotional music and love songs than just dance numbers. Himesh kept following his own success path of music with beats and sound designs and he forgot to add emotions and calmness in the songs as required by the theme.

So, the movie was not as expected and was below the mark. In short Subhash Ghai got inspired by “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” and made “Karz“, which proved to be a better product. Following the tradition, now Himesh also gets in the same mood but comes up with a Lazy inspired product relying too much on the music and his golden touch. The laziness is also there in its name too i.e. Karzzzzzzzzz.

For first timers, it is just an ok product with some good music. But I will have to see the Original “Karz” again to wipe this off from my memory and get those sweet musical moments back.

Rating : 2 / 5

HELLO : A Hit book doesn’t guarantee a Hit movie.

Based on a bestseller “One Night at a Call Center” by Chetan Bhagat, the movie is a good example which teaches that we need to do a lot of changes and additions on the scripting stage if we want to make a movie on a novel. In “Hello”, the director has made some additions, but the add on’s are there only to sell the movie and grab attention of the audiences. By only taking Salman Khan for few scenes and shooting a catchy number with shirtless Salman, does not mean that you can ignore the other important aspects of movie making. Sadly “Hello” becomes the culprit of the same thought.

Last week, I noticed and mention it for “Kidnap” and this week we have the same drastic mistake repeated in “Hello”. I cannot simply understand that “How can a movie start straight away with a four-five minute song?” As the viewer excitedly sits to watch the movie, he is simply served a song at the start. This is a definite indication that you are going to watch a mediocre product. And as the time passes, you know that the outcome is not what you were expecting.

An interesting and novel idea gets spoiled with a very poor script and execution. It was hugely promoted as a movie in which a phone call is made by “The God” himself to some call center employees. And the greatest flaw of the movie is that the phone call comes after almost half the movie is over. You keep on waiting for that but the director, Atul Agnihotri is more engrossed in giving scenes to all his characters and in describing the tragedies they are facing. Suddenly the phone call sequence comes and also finishes off in minutes. You don’t feel excited while the call is being attended by the characters on the screen. The scene is not capable of generating any extraordinary thrill in the viewer. And as the “Call from the God” sequence ends, you also end having any interest in the movie. Morevoer, you also don’t find any great results in the movie, even after the God has called.

Performance by the entire cast is simply professional like they are just doing another film. So nothing special is there to write about any specific actor. Only Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif seem to be more interested in contributing to the movie than all others. They both are there enacting “a special appearance” in order to provide a star element to the movie. A catchy title song with Salman, is good to watch, but it should have been there in the end titles instead. The special and heartily efforts of Salman & Katrina are not able to save the movie which is unexpectedly a poor product based on a best-selling novel.

It’s nice to see that we are again picking up good books and novels for the stories in our movies. This practice was done way back in the Black and White era and in later years too by some great film-makers India has seen. But in the current and fast changing times a lot has to be re-shaped and re-written to transform a successful book into a Hit movie. Unfortunately, “Hello”, fails in doing that.

Rating : 1 / 5

DRONA : Confused and uninspiring on the lines of “Tashan” & “Saawariya”

It can be called the game of destiny or the Karmic circle that some people get all the resources, the backing and ready setup to make a huge movie and from the inside they are not the masters of the medium. On the other hand there are immensely talented people (directors and writers) who have all the potential of delivering a Hit but they never get a chance of proving themselves. Here destiny plays more important role than talent, I suppose. Why I felt this way after watching DRONA ? Here is the answer…

If we take into consideration the budget of DRONA and instead of making “Drona”, we spend that money on 10 different small budget films giving break to new talents, then I am sure all the 10 films will come up with something interesting. A few may be exceptions, but they all will be able to recover the cost and may also generate profits by selling all kind of theatrical, satellite and digital rights.

But spending such amount of money on a dull, uninteresting and poorly executed project like “Drona” is out of my understanding. In fact in my opinion if any intelligent businessman would have seen the rushes of this movie half way, then he would have decided to shelve the project right there.
I am a loyal Bachhan fan, but I feel sad to say that this is the most deadly or the worst choice of project from Abhishek Bachhan. May be he relied too much on his childhood friend Goldie Behl, the director of the movie, who could not deliver the goods for himself and his friend.

Drona simply fails to generate any kind of interest right from the start. You can feel the restlessness, the giggles and the noises in the theater just after 15 minutes of the movie. There is no definite plot and it keeps on dragging with costly and well executed digital effects. Interestingly all the special effects seem to be inspired from the “Mummy” series movies. The sand storm, the faces in the sands all look familiar. Abhishek tries to give an intense performance but doesn’t have a well written role for him. Both the writer and director seem to be confused in what to make, a fantasy movie, a super hero movie or a super girl movie.

The annoying fact is that Priyanka Chopra looks more convincing and gorgeous in her super girl get-up than Abhishek as Drona. May be the film would have been far different and better if it was made around Priyanka as a super women. Jaya Bachhan has nothing to do in few scenes she has got, but as always she looks elegant. A complete mis-cast is K.K. in the role of evil villain. He tries to be funny and cruel at the same time but fails to impress. For the first time I felt K.K. was not doing his part with full spirits.

The script has not got any mention of a special time period. It keeps on shifting to different time spans with sudden jumps ignoring any continuity. However I made a keen notice for the work of Art Director. The fantasy sets and the mysterious city set in the second half was so childish, in bright colours like newly painted and was clearly visible that they were made out of cardboards and stationary materials. The sets were not impressive at all as compared to the special effects. Musically, nothing to mention as all songs were uninspiring and unwanted as per the script and demand of the subject. In the first half the songs disturb rather than entertain.

Only a night before, I heard the people from the Industry praising the movie at its premier in Mumbai. Now after watching it, I can only come to a conclusion that Abhishek has not got good, sincere and true friends around him. If there had been a true friend then he would have told Abhishek straight, that this is your latest grand mistake of making a wrong choice and please don’t rely on it. Forget it as soon as possible. And I can bet that Amitabh, Jaya and Aishwarya, all being intelligent & experienced film personalities, knew at the back of their minds that this is not gonna work.

Last Words : The only worth watching thing in Drona is, the fight sequences by gorgeous Priyanka Chopra in a well suited get up.

Rating : 1 / 5

KIDNAP : Another example of Good Promos and Poor Content.

Sanjay Gadhvi, comes up with another thriller after his Dhoom movies. As everyone was appreciating the promising promos of Kidnap, it looked like a fast paced, stylish and engrossing thriller. But instead the movie fails to hold your interest from the first scene itself and is not even close to the earlier films by the director.

The most annoying thing is when a movie shamelessly starts with a song. This is like taking the viewers as granted and it also indicates that the makers didn’t know how to start the movie, so they inserted a song with the heroine singing at the beach in some revealing dresses. I don’t know what reasons can be given for starting a thriller movie with a song. Another shock comes right after the unwanted song, when you see Minissha Lamba calling Vidya Maldave “her MOM”. Simply, a mis-cast. Neither Minissha looks like celebrating her 18th birthday nor Vidya looks her mother from any angle. By only putting a dialogue that “You became pregnant when you were 18” (for Vidya) cannot justify your mis casting.

The kidnap executed by Imran Khan, happens in the first reels itself and the complete story is revealed thereafter. As Imran is looking good playing the kidnapper, the viewer expects that some chilling and exciting drama will unfold in the later reels. But nothing happens and the film keeps on moving uninterestingly. Sanjay Dutt as the father of Minissha looks tired and just plays his part. Minissha acts ok but she seriously has to work on her close ups and Vidya Maldave looks more gorgeous than her onscreen daughter. All the others in the cast having nothing much to do.

According to me, the USP of the movie could be the plot, where Imran is giving clues to Sanjay Dutt, which are to be solved by him in order to get his daughter back. But this very sequence is the most underwritten part of the script. The clues are uninteresting and the drama created through them does not create the required excitement. As a thriller the movie is not able to bring the viewer on the edge of his seat, which is a must for a good crime movie. It’s just another revenge drama, where the child grows up and now wants to take revenge for his lost childhood.

There are many unanswered questions in different sequences in the script. Sanjay Dutt easily manages to get everything done as asked by Imran. He easily breaks in and out of the tight security in the house of his rich competitor. He takes a convict out of the jail as a piece of cake. He reaches the station in time, beating the traffic in a strange way and runs like a 25 year young boy. Very strangely, a revealing and stylish wardrobe changes are given to Minissha while she is locked up by her kidnapper. Too many liberties taken by the writer here. A film with this kind of subject surely does not require any songs, but here we have more than 3 songs and that too just as fillers. Pritam has given a very unexpected score with not even one exceptional song.

Gadhvi’s seems to be a fan of chase and Heist movies. His “Dhoom’s” had many sequences related to breaking in and beating security systems, “Kidnap” also has its own similar scenes. But whereas the loopholes of “Dhoom’s” were covered by its huge and stunning starcast, this time “Imran” alone cannot cover the faulty script and becomes a victim of it.

In few words, Kidnap is another flick, whose promos were better than the main movie. All the expectations raised by its promos are not met and you feel disappointed. The only good thing in the movie is “Imran Khan”.

Rating : 1.5 / 5