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Tumbbad (2018)
Decent Watch
May be I am the only one not going ga ga about this movie here. Whatever, I found it to good and that is about it.
When I saw the trailer, I dont know what gave an impression of a storyline which is of large scale. I was very disappointed to see a movie of one man trying to get treasure for a ghost/vampire. Not that the plot is bad, but just that is looked way to generic for the grandness of trailer.
Down few hundred meters in an old dilapidated house, a vampire named Astar stays who has gold in his trouser. Our guy in the movie, goes to his ancestral house in Tumbbad house every week to lure that vampire with food and then steal gold coins from him. At then end, when he is getting old, he trains his teenage son to do this. Sons gives him an idea to give lot of food to Astar so that they can steal the source of gold. They go with this plan, however, end up finding that there are many Astar and the food isn't enough. In this case father sacrifices to save his son. End of Movie.
It is more like a story of golden goose than spiritual, world saving situation. Well shot, but go for this movie with horror genre expectations. Not much of thriller or suspense genre. Good onetime watch but I don't know if it is going to turn the whole bollywood cinema on its head.
Bang Bang (2014)
Review + Experience of Bang Bang
I have been waiting for this since the time I saw the trailer of it. I hadn't liked the songs - but hey, lovely promos. So, when movie released I booked the tickets for Thursday night.
I opened my twitter and FB on Thursday morning and in came the flow of negative reviews of the film. All the leading reviewers gave it 1.5 star. User reviews were still not available.
My heart sank. I saw my 1000 bucks going in drainage. I checked to see if I can cancel my ticket - there wasn't any option. Wife said - no worries we'll see how it goes. I said to myself - well, it can't go poorer than Himmatwala that I had seen.
I also did one more thing - I saw Knight and Day again in afternoon.
I went in to see the film with my wife, sister and mother in law. I honestly had no expectations from the film after all the reviews I had read.
After 80 minutes in the movie, we went for interval. I looked at my wife with an expression - "what the f**K all the negative reviews were about"? It was an entertaining first half and I was wondering if rest of the guys saw the same film? We decided to wait and finish the entire film and see if they have goofed it up anywhere in second part.
After another 80 minutes or so, I was convinced, the reviews that I had been reading since morning were either mostly paid reviews or the people went in expecting a James Cameron film. Movie is not flawless, lets be honest.
The first half is good, however second half could have been better. The fly-board based action sequence isn't placed very well. The climax is decent, but stuffed a bit. There were big news of how interesting the Abu Dhabhi chasing sequence is with 120 cars and all, but honestly it doesn't live up to the expectation. Formula 1 car driving is from no where and there aren't great scenes shot with it. The last scene of water plane is immediately after the F1 car and it seemed that last 15-20 minutes is stuffed with too much of an action. Songs are good, but they all look alike - there should have been some variety in there.
Acting wise, Hrithik stole the show. Katrina and Hrithik I guess are best looking pair in Bollywood. They look superb together. Dance sequences are beautiful. Danny Denzogappa is wasted in the film. There isn't much of a scope for rest of the cast - wish they could have been synchronized better.
Even with all the negatives, the visual treat that movie offers is superb. It is fast paced and no where you'll feel bored with what is on your screen. Style quotient of the film is very high and continuity has been maintained. You see Shimla / Prague and other places in the film - but they are connected and it just doesn't happen out of the blue. Suspense is well built and story, even though is not new, looks connected and nicely treated.
Its an amazing attempt to make a progressive movie. Movies like these take a forward looking step for the Bollywood. I do hope, someday we'll see a Transformer as well, though I am convinced we have a long way to go.
Its a movie I wouldn't mind to watch again if I have to. Its a great work and deserves a theater run.
Shaadi Ke Side Effects (2014)
Good at certain points
The movie is good at points and that the summary of this entire movie. If you need to look at, you'd like the first half more than second half. After interval the movie just seems to drag too much without much of a logic and coherence. End is slightly predictable but it is ideal for the movie.
Bacche Hone Ke Side Effects would have been right title for the movie. Because it all starts with a baby in family. The typical husband-wife things are not in enough quantity and its so very particular to the type of couple they are.
Frankly, the movie wasn't up to the mark and falls below the expectation. I simply couldn't connect the husband-wife and kid in the family - they all looked disjointed and wasn't felt like a family. Shaadi Ke side effects had to be generic in nature just because the message it has - but it went too specific to a particular type of couple and then didn't justify the title it had.
Best of the acting came from Ram Kapoor - his dialogs delivery and conviction on them was simply amazing and live wire of the movie. Vidya and Farhan's pair doesn't look sparkling and it disappoints slightly. Individually, they have acted very well.
Couple of songs are good and the don't bore you much. Script is disappointing and so is the editing. Struggling music director Farhan in the film seems to be living very comfortable life with staying in hotels - buying bikes as he wishes etc.
The movie is full of promotions - Cars, bikes, cloths, TVs, phones, hospitals - everything has been branded nicely to get sponsor money. Looked sad to see all that. Its just tad too much.
Overall, I wont be too excited to watch this film. Its strictly a decent watch but not up to the mark.
Hasee Toh Phasee (2014)
A blissful and sweet flick
The movie rides on its cuteness quotient and its amazingly high on that. When I booked the tickets for the movie, I had no expectation from it and looked forward to see some idiot Rom-Com. However, when I came out of the theater - I was pleasantly surprised with what I had seen.
I typically look for details in the film and small things matter a lot. There were some loose ends in the script, but by the time movie finished, it was all sorted out. The loose ends are closed in a single line and very subtly, so if you don't pay attention to those things, you might loose the plot or the consistency that this film actually has.
Acting is cute - comedy is sweet and relationships are captured the best. You don't see the family in Rom-Coms now-a-days and it was nice to see a full fledged family chemistry in this film. The comedy scenes aren't forced, they just happen and they make you laugh. Imagine a scene where an aunt is serving milk tea, but everyone says that there preference is something else (like coffee, black tea etc). When see reaches to a young man and he is just about to say something, she asks him to just take it. The scene is simple, but it had entire theater burst in laughter. The ACP Pradyuman and Daya scene is cute too. There are many such cute scenes in the film and they just grow on you.
Its is a fantastic film and achieves what it wanted to achieve. There are many things to write about, but I leave it to respective watcher to explore in the film. I am not happy with the title of the film. "Hasee to Phasee" denotes a movie where the guys is trying to woo to the girl - there is nothing of that sort in the film for good.
I simply loved the cuteness of the film and I'd love to may be watch it again.
Jai Ho (2014)
Decent Flick but becomes stereo-typic
If you've not seen Stalin (Telugu) and Pay It Forward (English), you might find yourself seeing something completely new.In reality, it is not.
Its a frame by frame copy of Stalin and I am not sure what is it with Salman Khan and remake of South films. Wanted was remade from Pokiri, Ready with the same name, Bodygaurd with same name and now Jai Ho, from Stalin. Are they short of new ideas? Well, nothing against the remakes, but why to do a scene-by-scene remake - why not improve it, twist the story to make it a better film?
Lets come back to the film. First half is gripping. You attach yourself with the character and the action scenes, even though, are run-of-a-mill scenes, look very connected. Story follows a coherent plot and everything falls into place. By the time first half ends, you be almost convinced that it is a 9 or 10 star film. The goodness that is spread in first half and positive energy is amazing. You invariably think of Munnabhai 2 while watching those scenes. Betterment of society is a big topic and very sensitive to all of us. It looks very promising with those thing and you start looking for an awesome end / transformation in second half. Female lead actress has been made to look good in the movie and the chemistry is good.
All of the goodness of first half falls flat in second half. Second half becomes a normal Hero-vs-bad-politician movie. There is nothing new in second half. Here and there, you see the goodness of first half, but it doesn't leave any impression. Action scenes do become fierce, but connection to audience is normal. The best part of the movie comes when Salman Khan shows his greased, blood filled, aggressive body on screen. This scene has been taken special care of and is dipped in with all the spices to make it s delight for Salman fans. My wife was couldn't stop clapping through-out the film.
Its just another film filled with Salmanism. Overall, it should be watched ones, for the message its trying to carry, however I'd doubt if it breaks any box office records.
Dhoom:3 (2013)
Dhoom 3 - A Good Entertainer
Dhoom 3 is bound to have couple of comparisons. First, with its previous installments and second with all the movies set in a backdrop of magic and circus, most notably – The Prestige from Chris Nolan.
I read few reviews before going for the movie. They weren't so good a review and thus, I went with no expectation. After watching the movie, I am in a dilemma with respect to its rating. I am reminded of Ranbir Kapoor starer, Barfi. It was accused of copying it from Charlie Chaplin's movies – however, I found it be a very decent flick.
Dhoom 3 has its negatives – for some of us, negatives might be just too many. But it's all about you digesting them and continue watching an otherwise, a very good film. Comparison with previous Dhoom series or The Prestige is pointless as it doesn't have any reference or treatment like them.
Team has mainly concentrated in depicting relationships and chase sequences than the heist and magic. So it goes like this – Sahir plans to rob a bank and then we see dollar bills falling like rain drops near the bank. You never get to know what Sahir is doing to rob and how is he robbing the bank. It was a big letdown for me. Focus invariably remains to demystify the secret of why Sahir is robbing the bank, but not how is he robbing them. By the way, all he is doing is to rob a single bank's multiple branches. Apparently, that bank has only 4 branches in all.
Katrina Kaif is wasted in the movie for good. Songs are shot nicely and they fit in well with the movie. It is roughly for 3 hours, but it doesn't seem so long. I was quite surprised with how soon the interval came. Uday Chopra and his role don't add any value to the script, nor he is fit for the role he is doing in the film. He is a liability to the franchisee and we'd like something better in Dhoom 4, if the producers plan to make one.
Jr Bachhan is nothing to talk about – he simply carries on from where he left Dhoom 2. Simply no addition to build on to his character. The soul and heart of the movie is Aamir Khan and he has delivered – though I doubt he'll be pleased with the outcome. There were scope for improvement and things to think through. I simply have no idea why he has a constipation-like face at the start of the film. The character demanded determination more than anger in my opinion. But yes, it is like no other role of Aamir Khan. There is not similarity with Ghajini and his portrayal stands out. There was news that he learned Parkour for this film but no where you get to see that. All the chase sequences are on bike in the city and though they are good, they seem one-dimensional. Very less of special stunt from Aamir Khan and more of emotional acting. The climax scene, like that in Dhoom 2, has come from nowhere. At the end, all of a sudden we see everyone on Hoover Dam. The end is nice and fits to the movie. It has certain thrilling points and I'll leave it up to you to explore them.
Special effects were the talking point of the movie. They've come out well. They are nicely synced, in proper place, in proper order, and in proper quantity. There is neither too much of it, nor too less. The stunts seemed too far-fetched for a Bollywood cinema, but they are fine. BMW must have paid some handsome money to promote their bike. My wife actually liked the stunts and special effects, and she is normally not too much into geeky movies.
Overall, it's not a great movie technically, but visually it's very good. Entertainment value is very high and you get good value for your money. You shouldn't get bored while watching it and at the end of it, you'll come out of the theater with a smile on your face.
Thumbs up from my side.
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela (2013)
Shakespeare wouldn't have liked this Ram-Leela - Neither do I
Had Shakespeare been alive to see his masterpiece converted on to screen like Ram-Leela, I am not certain he'd have liked it very much.
Its colorful and visually amazing. It's got many songs, lot of them are forced and unnecessary but some are visually good. Music overall is decent. Baa's character is nicely carried out, so is the character of brothers of both lead stars. Deepika and Ranbir are fine in places, but mostly look out of sync from the characters played in the movie. Deepika did a fine job of playing a South Indian lady in Chennai Express, couldn't do so in this flick which needed Rajasthani character. I am just trying to be honest in this review. However nice I can be, but the fact is that the movie is boring. I had no interest in watching the film after 40-45 mins and after Interval, I just wished I had left. May be I could have saved on parking fee of the mall.
In short, it is Ishaqzade, with grandness and colors, but incapable acting, poor story building, not established characters and a disappointing director. I am not certain what he wanted out of Ranbir Singh. I just wished that rather than spending 6hrs in gym, had he spent few hours knowing about the character, it'd have helped this movie immensely.
I'd suggest the director take some cue from Imtiaz Ali on how to make an emotional and binding love story. While nice visuals certainly help, they don't always end up making a good movie.
I'd give it a miss any given day and won't keep a DVD even if it comes for free!
Himmatwala (2013)
Insult to Human Logic
Climax scene, very intense. Son (Ajay Devgan) is getting beaten inside a temple compound by villains in front of his mother, sister and girlfriend. Mother, finally enters into temple and pleads to god "Bas Maa Bas, Aur Kab Tak".
Entire cinema hall bursts into laughter! I doubt there can be any bigger insult to a movie maker than this - he is trying to create an emotional scene and viewer is getting comedy out of it. If I could, I'd request govt to consider giving out some sort of award - not to the movie, but to the viewers for going through this tormenting, nerve-racking, torturous assault on human logic. I wish I could get my money back and sue the director for wasting my 2 hours.
Well, this was probably the most confused movie I have ever seen. The treatment is pathetic and the entire movie is shot casually without any brains. It being a remake of an old movie (well, almost all the decently launched Hindi movies now a days are either remake of some Tamil / Telugu / Kannada / Hollywood film or some sequels like Murder 3, Jism 3, Race 2, Saheb Biwi and Crap returns, Ashiqui 2, Yamala Pagla Deewana 2 etc) always brings additional expectation of it to be slightly better than the earlier one. Not with this one. Forget being better, if Jitendra sees it, he might contemplate killing himself for approving such a shady remake.
Movie starts with a street fight which is idiotically shot. Then suddenly jumps to a railway station called Ramnagar. Ajay Devgan gets down from the train with dress and shades of 2013 for a movie which supposedly is of 1980s. Meets mother - mothers tells some senseless story - they move in to their home and starts taking revenge on villain. I guess my narration of story is far better than how Sajid Khan has managed to display it.
Presence of Paresh Rawal doesn't help with comic quotient of the movie. Its ridiculously meaningless - but I guess we must have gotten used to it by now with Houseful and Houseful 2. I am yet to figure out why Sajid Khan is loosing his brain with each movie he is releasing. Hey Baby was a much better entertainer and after that, he seemingly has lost his sane in making movies.
The tiger fight scene is absurd and nonsensical. In 2013, where CGI is so far advanced, the entire stretch is shot as if the director is running on budget crunch. Guess, it is more of a intellect-crunch at directors end than anything else.
Well, not everything is bad in this movie. There are two good things - call them eye soothing if you wish - Tamannah, who simply looked fabulous, and 5 beauties dancing on "Dhoka Dhoka Dhoka" item song. The song is ludicrous (like rest of the songs and the movie itself), but I guess having 5 item girls helped a bit to glorify the screen.
Should you watch this movie? Well, go ahead if you want to see how an illogical movie is made to abuse human brain. I lost my senses after watching this movie and had to wait 24 hours before I could gain some of it to write this apt review.
In my opinion, you'll be much better off sipping some drink and enjoying a biryani with that money in some decent restaurant than wasting it here. If you are not hungry, give that money to some beggar for god's sake, better than wasting on it. You would not miss anything in life if you haven't watch it - trust me!
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
A very good watch!
This movie reminded me of another movie named Outsourced. One major difference being Outsourced had an American crew, whereas this one's got British. I had loved Outsourced and I loved this one too. Very high on emotional front, this movie talks about 7 old age Brtishers who had to come a small time hotel named Marigold in Jaipur to spend last few days of their lives.
With the actors like Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy around - it was never going to be low on acting department. The only point to see was - how does director go about portraying the fusion - something which was very nicely done in Outsourced. Movie scores amazingly there. The movie expectedly is shot around Jaipur and the characters are quite special in themselves. There is one Gay in the movie who is retired High Courte judge, one lady who hates Indians, a couple who have spent 39 years together only to know that they have been humble and kind to each other rather than in love, and then we've got Judy Dench portraying the character of narrator of this film.
This movie brings the essence of India and how a foreigner should look at it. Its a different country with different values and culture. It was heartening to see the same being displayed with utmost honesty on the screen.
Well, there are certain flaws as well. Indian love birds, however modern they might be, still don't kiss in public. Indian hotels, even though meant for old age people are better maintained than what's show in the movie and the pieces attached to technology, as displayed in the movie, is poor. One can blame it to Jaipur city as its not as developed as, lets say Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore, but the place does look little outdated India.
Another thing movie missed out to cash on was its festivals. There are hardly any captured. Director, I am sure, must have been in dilemma of showing Tajmahal or larger cities. It seems he compromised on glorifying the movie at cost of character development - something that I think was quite appropriate. Its not necessary to show Tajmahal in every Indian movie.
With all the positives and negatives put together, this is one fantastic piece of art which I simply loved for its truthfulness.
It garnered positive review upon release as well and stands at 78% at Rotten Tomatoes and 7.2 at IMDb. I guess those ratings speak very little of what this movie is. I am no fan of Slumdog Millionaire, and this movie is no where close to it, thankfully.
It comes highly recommended from my side. It may not be perfect - but its honest to itself!
The Hunger Games (2012)
A different genre
Few people locked on an island (or in a game and) they need to kill each other till just one survivor is left. And this entire thing being televised to everyone. Does this plot ring any bell? If you have not seen "The Condemned", directed by Scott Wiper with Steve Austin, or "The Tournament", directed by Scott Mann with Robert Carlyle / Kelly Hu, or "Death Race", by Paul W. S. Anderson with Jason Statham, or "DOA: Dead or Alive", directed by Corey Yuen with Holly Valance, then the movie will be something completely new for you.
However, if you have seen any of those, then your mind unintentionally will go back to those movies and you'll find things very predictable. Need not to mention, this movie is a clear remake of Battle Royale – a Japanese movie of 2001.
In spite of all those odds against it, the movie does leave a mark on you. Director didn't make this with any sort of inspiration from its other siblings and you kind of find genuineness in the way it is made. You are not concerned much about other districts here except for Districts 12 whose pair are protagonists of the movie.
The movie doesn't look long or short and director concentrated in what he wanted to show, avoiding other distractions which could have easily happened in such a movie. There is not much of blood or gory scenes depicted on screen. Lot of things are indirectly told for you to understand. Enough time has been spent in showing the preparation of Hunger Games and the build up to it.
Acting by all is awesome and the dressing / makeup is stunning. Capital people look classy and everyone seemed to enjoy Hunger Games. Movie is a good watch, however I never felt that I am watching a masterpiece or something. I was surprised to see that it broke some record of highest weekend gross. I doubt it is that good. May be a one- time watch and then move on.
Summary : Watch it and you'll not regret your decision. If you have to pick between Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titan, pick Hunger Games, however don't go with sky high expectations.
Agent Vinod (2012)
A good watch and not as bad as reviews may suggest
Plot Summary:
Vinod is captured by a Pakistani army officer and is being interrogated. Enters second agent Rajan (Ravi Kishan) and then follows some skillful shots to depict how they escape. Movie begins!
In Moscow, a KGB agent is shot during a Nuke bomb deal. Bomb is stolen and all intelligent agencies in world are worried about it.
Sometime later, Rajan has infiltrated into Abu Nazer's team who deals with drugs / prostitution / money laundering to try to see what is he up to. There is a meeting between Colonel (main villain) and Abu on train and Rajan listens in to it. Colonel gets to see a transmitter and Rajan gets exposed. Rajan runs away from a running train and is trying to send info about code 242 from his hotel when he is killed. Vinod is then assigned on the case and his trips to multiple countries begin to solve this case.
First stop, Moscow to meet Abu. Some scenes, the I'll do the talking song, fight sequence, Abu being killed with info leading to David Kazaan in Morocco. Second Stop - Morocco to meet Kazaan and find out about 242. Ruby / Iram's entry to scene. Few scenes lead you to understanding that 242 is an auction item number about a detonator hidden in an old book. Kazaan manages to buy that auction item due to a distraction to Vinod. Ruby and Vinod get to know about each other. Ruby convinces Vinod that she can get the detonator from Kazaan's safe. When she reaches there, she finds that Colonel has already killed Kazaan. Pakistan high command questions ISI chief related to its involvement in nuke bomb deal. ISI chief says that he'll investigate and get back, but he is killed by the army officer who was investigating Vinod in the first scene.
While detonator is safe with Colonel, the bomb itself is handled by Jimmy who manages to get the bomb to Latvia and then to Somalia which finally gets sent to Delhi. Investigation proceeds and finally they get to know that there is a nuke bomb blast conspiracy in India. Pak High commissioner is called and they both work together to spot this piece and nail it down. Final scenes are just how this entire activity happens.
Review:
Its not as bad as Ra.One. In fact no where close to it. Ra.One seems to be a benchmark to compare a disaster movie. If you happened to like Ra.One, then don't worry, you'd like this one as well. If you didn't like Ra.One, like me, you'd still like this one. This is no Bourne / Bond or any other similar series, however it does have few things that remind you of other movies. The main plot definitely seems to be inspired from "Sum of All Fears" - a Tom Clancey novel made into a movie with Ben Affleck/Morgan Freeman. The main plot was a nuclear bomb being bought and sold all over the world to finally get delivered in US for detonation - plus lot more of drama on very very high scale, which of course is not in Agent Vinod.
The movie is not weak anywhere. There is neither a continuity problem in the plot, nor its complex or slow or too fast to comprehend. I read tonnes of other reviews from Critics and from users of IMDb and when I was watching the movie, it seemed that we may have watched two separate Agent Vinod's. This movie is not 100% perfect, neither a spy-thriller film is expected to be. Deccan Chronicle gave 4 stars to Ra.One, and 2 stars to Agent Vinod? They seriously need to change their reviewer. Yahoo gave it one star stating the lead actor is not carrying any expressions on face. God, this is a spy movie and he is not expected to carry any expressions, except the firm and stern ones. There were plenty of negatives written and talked about the movie, which I am afraid is not true. While I already have mentioned that the movie is not 100%, but other misses are something that'll barely bother you.
What works for the movie:
> Script is good enough. Even if there are holes, all in all they are coherent.
> Over all styling of the film along with espionage activities are shot well
> Saif Ali Khan suits well for the role, though a clean shaven, more sharp person could have been a better choice.
> Roles from Abu / Kazaan / Jimmy / Colonel are very good. The smaller roles from many people add a feeling of progressing script and look good.
> Action Sequences and dialogs are perfectly fine. Interesting many a times. Songs are good. The way Raabta song is shot is a great plus for the movie.
What doesn't work:
> Kareena Kapoor doesn't work at all in the film.
> Little more higher level or more details wouldn't have been a bad idea.
> Movie could have done little more justice to character development
Kahaani (2012)
Its Kolkata all the way!
This movie had Kolkata all over it - right from start to finish. While the movie has critically been acclaimed by everyone on the planet, I do have my reservation on the story which I found difficult to comprehend at the end.
Lets talk about the story. Milan Damji is a some scientist or IB Agent (or may be both) who has gone rogue. In last two years, IB had done investigations, but they couldn't locate the employee records from old office or the place where Damji stayed. Can that happen? Lets assume IB investigation was led by idiots. Now lets see the motive behind Vidya to go for a revenge of this scale after two years. Is Vidya some trained professional? It seemed so the way she handles herself at the end while killing Damji. But wait, isn't she a software engineer? In the beginning, the Metro train incident - that seemed like to have happened by an error and wasn't intentional. In any case, Damji never planned that to kill Vidya's husband. In that case, is there even a case of revenge?
As per story, Arnab and Milan worked together. Wouldn't Milan know Arnab's wife? When Milan has already gone rogue and IB ran investigation, found nothing, then why so much of a concern with a lady like Vidya coming into picture. Not like she is more dangerous or powerful than IB. In any case, I never understood any logic in killing Agnes or Dr Ganguly. There was nothing useful information that they could have given here to catch Milan. Also I didn't understand why Khan would stop Vidya in not looking for her husband. How does it really matter to him? He is to find Milan, isn't it? Stopping Vidya is not going to help anyway.
I guess I can go on and on about my questions. But they are not important. This movie is sweet right from beginning to the end. Depiction of Kolkata is amazing and Bob Biswas's acting for me clearly stands out amidst all. Rana looked too sweet to be a police officer, but perfectly fine. I would have liked him using his police instincts and power in the movie, which I think he rarely did. Khan did what he was supposed to - however his depiction could've been handled better as well. Background score is awesome and never in the movie you feel that things have been overdone. Scale of this movie looked good. The shaky camera work (like hand-held shots) does remind you of Bourne Series. Its effectively and nicely used.
There is lot of 'Kolkata' in the movie and I felt that director lost the plot somewhere in excitement of depicting Kolkata. Director could have taken 20 more min and shown a better integration of all. There was no need to hurriedly close the movie in 2 hrs.
Overall 7 rating from my side just for Kolkata, and a fresh plot / movie.
Ra.One (2011)
One time watch; don't expect much!
I managed to get tickets for 2nd show of RA.One on the first day of release and below is my review. Movie starts with introduction of Lucifer. There is nothing great in it and director could have done away with it. Then we see Sekhar with a very cheap introduction where his car keys have fallen into women's bra! Cheap and unwanted. He is trying to bring south Indian accent and to be honest, he is nowhere close to it and it does not suit him at all. The curd noodles idea was funny, however, for some reason it was very difficult to connect to the emotional build up between father and son. It just never clicked! The making of game in office is good and the team coming with names is nicely shown as well. We see some errors when they make the game and they talk about it as well, however, stupidly nothing is shown as to what happens to them.
Lot of people would find the concept of game character coming alive, as shown in film, not convincing enough! While we understand that the movie is work of fiction, it lacks basic logic in the fiction. Well, all in all, you don't mind much when RA.One comes to life, however G.One coming to life is not very clear. Well, again, it's fiction, so you kind of ignore and move on. Sonia sees villain and calls up Prateek from the car in front of Baron Games office that he is coming up. Prateek manages to come down and we see that villain is still at the gate. There was a timing error here. Well, we again move on and next scene is a car chase. This chase and the scene after that is the highlight of this entire movie. While chasing, G.One appears and they end up in a car park or junk yard or something. The action sequence here is top notch and you'll see something that you'll have never seen before. The Arial shots took my breath away. These shots can make any Hollywood flick proud..
Now we move onto second half. Few of the scenes of first half make you eager to see what's going to happen next, specially the RA.One and G.One contest, however that unfortunately happens towards end of second half. Overall, second half was disappointing. Errors keep on increasing and lot of things doesn't make sense. G.One shows lot of emotions sometimes and in few scenes he is bland. I never managed to understood how RA.One and G. One have been shown. They are made up of rays or a costume or something else?
Flaws in continuity and logic are plenty; so many that I can't list them all here. The climax is disappointing to me. After seeing their fight in first half at junk yard, I had high expectations of the finish. Didn't happen. The train sequence is not worth watching, though they did show you how the train damages the railway station. Nothing that you would not have seen before! The climax is when RA one calls G.One to fight for last 2 rounds at the Game launch place. Is the game even launching now after what all happened during production? Well G.One arrives and a battle begins! You never understand whether G.One is making its own moves or Prateek is expected to control it? Prateek didn't control it in first half when G.one fought bravely and defeated RA.One, so ideally there shouldn't be any need during climax, but we see him putting on game-suit and doing something. We don't know where he got the suit from or the game DVD and how they all connected, but who cares!
Abhinav Sinha is not capable of directing a movie of this scale and it is visible at many places during the movie. Acting is sub-standard from everyone and we can blame director for not giving enough time for characters to develop. Quality of visual effects is good but it is not in many times in the movie. All in all, Ra one and G one face each other only twice and barring this there are two more action sequences, the train one and another outside Mumbai airport. The scene outside Mumbai airport is utter nonsense and it seems it was done only to showcase Rajnikant. It doesn't fit into movie and director kills the continuity. Rajni doesn't do anything either apart from coming in a car, getting down and saying is one liner. We would have loved him had he been used nicely in the continuity of the movie. The clash between RA.One and G.One is what we eagerly wait for in the movie. When they first collide at junk yard, the scenes promise for a wonderful, extravagant 2nd half, but it disappoints and we only see them face to face towards the end only. Enthiran had so many small segments of Chitti doing funny and nicer things (all in continuity), here, we never get to see much of G.One. There are comic punches in the movie and they are good ones, however again, just not enough. There will comparisons between Enthiran and RA.One, and thought the quality of visual effects is better in RA.One, Enthiran beats RA.One in overall logic and better story integration. Visual effects, quantity wise is not as much as it was in Enthiran and Abhinav can learn some lessons there. Personally, I was looking for a better movie that what I saw in theater and that probably has resulted in lot of negative comments here, but hey, movie can definitely be watched once as it is a treat to see some nice visual effects in Bollywood, but overall I don't know where 175 Cr was spent in the movie.