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from India Masala:
Fukrey: Friendship and fun
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
The 'Delhi film' has become somewhat of a trend in Bollywood. You have smart dialogue, actors speaking in a Punjabi accent and chase sequences in the bylanes of old Delhi.
Mrighdeep Singh Lamba's "Fukrey" falls in the same mould - the story of four young men who come up with a convoluted idea to get rich, so that three of them can get into the coolest college in town, knowing all too well they can’t get through on merit.
Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma play Hunny and Choocha, two friends who would rather spend hours plotting how to get their hands on leaked high-school exam papers than study for it. They find a willing accomplice in Panditji (Pankaj Tripathi) who promises to get them the papers, provided they cough up the money.
from India Masala:
Yamla Pagla Deewana 2: Insanity overload
In Sangeeth Sivan's "Yamla Pagla Deewana 2", the bankruptcy of ideas and creativity is so obvious that the director knows he has to resort to another hit film and franchise to try and crack a few lame jokes. So Bobby Deol and Neha Sharma fall in love over their mutual love for Salman Khan and his "Dabangg" films.
The fact that even Salman Khan's name cannot retrieve this film from the depths of mediocrity should tell you something. Sivan resorts to all forms of toilet humour and slapstick comedy, with characters such as a whisky-drinking chimpanzee and a villain called "Dude".
from India Masala:
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani: A fun, breezy film
Deepika Padukone has obviously never gone on a trek before. Why else would she be wearing a mini-skirt and fur boots on the Himalayas? She’s also got perfectly set, blow-dried hair during these treks, and even after a day of playing Holi during the festival of colours, which would render most of us looking like something the cat dragged in, Padukone looks radiant. But that is the world she and other characters in Ayan Mukerji’s "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" inhabit.
These are pretty people falling in love, travelling to picturesque locations, having epiphanies while attending expensive destination weddings and following all the clichés Bollywood loves to propagate. And yet, you cannot help smiling as you leave the cinema hall.
from India Masala:
Bombay Talkies: The magic of celluloid
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
A five-minute scene, sans dialogue, just before the interval. A shot of a man elated, reliving his magical day as the rest of the world goes about its own business - these five minutes alone make "Bombay Talkies" worth a watch.
from India Masala:
Aashiqui 2: Tuneless tale
Mohit Suri may have done the impossible and crammed every single romantic movie cliché in “Aashiqui 2”. There are traces of the 1973 hit “Abhimaan” along with the original “Aashiqui” (1990). Director Suri tries to inject an intense vibe in his new film, but fails miserably.
Rahul Jaykar (Aditya Roy Kapoor), a rock star who is slowly slipping away into oblivion thanks to his alcoholism, spots Aarohi (Shraddha Kapoor) singing in a Goan bar. One look and he is smitten, convinced of her talent and ready to take her to Mumbai to make her a star.
from India Masala:
Commando: For diehard action fans
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
An Indian Army officer crashes his helicopter into Chinese territory and is subjected to third degree torture. But Karanvir Dogra aka Commando doesn't let slip any secrets.
from India Masala:
Nautanki Saala: A comedy of errors
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
The best scenes in Rohan Sippy's "Nautanki Saala" (adapted from French comedy Apres Vous) are the ones where there is no woman or romance involved. Male leads Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunaal Roy Kapoor have a good chemistry going and their humour is quirky and whacky, but funny all the same. The problem in their lives, and in the film, starts when the woman arrives on the scene.
from India Masala:
Himmatwala: Do not step into this time warp
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Reuters)
At the end of a long monologue in “Himmatwala”, where Ajay Devgn rattles off the same sentence in five different languages, he turns to the camera and asks “mazaa nahi aaya na?” (That wasn’t fun, was it?) It’s almost as if director Sajid Khan knew what a bad film he was making, but went ahead and made it anyway.
What they say about the past being viewed through rose-tinted glasses must be true, because if this is what our films were 30 years ago, we should all be glad we've moved on. But not Khan. He wants to take us back to corny dialogue, garish sets and the lack of absolutely any logic in the story whatsoever.
from India Masala:
Aatma: No soul in this horror flick
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Reuters)
The real test of a good horror movie, at least in my book, is when you can’t stop thinking about it and feel a shiver down your spine at night. All the great horror movies do that to you.
Suparn Varma’s “Aatma”, about a violent man who abuses his wife in life and in death, is one film that doesn’t scare you most of the time. Instead, there is much twiddling of thumbs as you wait for the next predictable twist and yet another person to die on the way to the climax.
from India Masala:
Jolly LLB: Little justice in this legal tale
Subhash Kapoor’s “Jolly LLB”, about a small-town lawyer who dreams of fame and wealth but develops a conscience along the way, is the film version of the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
From the cover (or in this case, the trailer), “Jolly LLB” seemed like a smart, snappy film about the David who takes on Goliath and comes away a hero. The musty, crowded corridors of the lower courts and the machinations that take place there are characteristic of the Indian judicial system and all its pitfalls are an ideal backdrop to this battle.
