India Masala

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan: Fun one-time watch

Ali Zafar’s “Mere Brother Ki Dulhan” is a slightly mindless but mostly funny rehash of an old romantic movie theme. Two guys, one girl, a wedding, lots of impossible situations and lots of songs are what make up this film.

Imran Khan plays Kush, a young Bollywood director entrusted with finding a bride for his London-based elder brother Luv (Ali Zafar), after the latter breaks up with his long-term girlfriend and decides he has had enough of relationships and wants to “settle down.”

After several false starts, Kush zeroes in on Dimple Dixit, the effervescent but slightly kooky daughter of a diplomat. Both families agree and within no time, they assemble for the wedding festivities. Both Kush and Dimple end up spending a lot of time together and of course, in accordance with the law of romantic movies, fall in love.

We are given no explanation for why Dimple and Luv do not communicate. It’s almost as if telephones and the internet didn’t exist, and in today’s age, it is difficult to believe that a couple in an arranged marriage wouldn’t communicate with each other more than once. Definitely something that rankles.

You will find many such holes in the script, especially in the second half, when Dimple and Kush use all kind of ruses to make sure Luv breaks up the marriage. However, what salvages this film is the light tone that Zafar manages to keep throughout. The dialogues are funny and Zafar himself is pretty adept at his comic timing.

Katrina Kaif brings zing to her role, and even though she overdoes it at times, (especially in the ‘Sholay’ scene), she is immensely likeable as Dimple Dixit. Her chemistry with Imran Khan is crackling and a large part of why the film worked for me.

There are way too many songs in the film and Zafar loses control sporadically. This could have been a shorter, tighter film.

Raajneeti: An epic nicely retold

First things first, “Raajneeti” is not about the first family in Indian politics even though some characters might resemble familiar cardboard cutouts.

So don’t go expecting some dope on a reality which is much stranger than fiction.

This film is a costume drama with white kurtas and cotton saris replacing wooden swords and bling bling battle dresses.

It is a re-telling of the Mahabharata restating it in a not-so-modern but certainly contemporary politics — somewhat like Shashi Tharoor’s “The Great Indian Novel”.

So if you go looking for Karna you will find him within the first five minutes of the movie and Ranbir Kapoor’s character will turn out less like any politician dead or alive and more Arjuna-meets-Michael Corleone from “The Godfather”.

Once the characters have been established, the thrill of watching doesn’t lie in what is going to happen next.

For that you know already.

De Dana Dan: Entertainment of the lowest level

Watching a movie like “De Dana Dan” in a single screen theatre where people are hooting and clapping at crass humour on screen may give you an insight into Indian audiences.

This audience doesn’t really mind that Archana Puran Singh uses foul language or that people randomly slap their husbands and wives or that there is really no logic to speak of. They found all of the above hilarious.

I am not judging that audience. After all, we all have our own tastes. I guess this is what they mean about Hindi movies that you have to “leave your brain behind and then watch”.

Akshay Kumar plays Nitin, a down and out young man who works as a servant with a rich woman in order to pay off his father’s debt to her. He is in love with Anjali (Katrina Kaif) but doesn’t have the money to marry her. He meets Ram (Suniel Shetty), a courier deliveryman who also needs money to marry his rich girlfriend (Sameera Reddy).

They decide to kidnap Nitin’s mistress’s dog, which she holds very dear. However, the plan goes awry and that is the start of the “confusion” in the film. One mistaken identity leads to the other and yet another, until the plot becomes so convoluted that you lose track.

I am writing this an hour after watching the film and if you ask me for the rest of the plot, I will be unable to tell you. It baffles me as to how the scriptwriter remembered all the twists and turns.

For all the confusion however, the end is so lame you feel the entire team was so tired of the film they just put their hands up at one point and said, “That’s it, this is where we end it”.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani: Ranbir saving grace

You hear the words Rajkumar Santoshi and comedy in one sentence and you immediately think — “Andaz Apna Apna”.

Fifteen years later, Santoshi is back with another comic caper, this time starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.  But if you are expecting another “Andaz Apna Apna”, you will be sorely disappointed.

This film has almost nothing going for it and if it weren’t for some funny moments in the first half and the brilliant comic timing of Ranbir Kapoor, it would have sunk into oblivion.

Ranbir plays Prem Shankar Sharma, a loveable but good-for-nothing young man who runs something called a “Happy Club” (the purpose of this club is unclear).

He meets Jenny (Katrina Kaif), falls in love and spends the film’s first half wooing her. This is the half that is funny in parts and will make you laugh. Unfortunately, it is all downhill from there.

Jenny, it turns out, is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel with an atrocious accent) but cannot marry him because Rahul’s father is a politician afraid of losing ‘Hindu’ votes if his son marries a Christian. Our filmmakers are inventing newer obstacles in the path of love.

So Prem puts aside his “prem” and sets about helping Jenny get hers. The second half has some funny moments, like the scene between Prem’s parents, but otherwise the script wears thin.

New York: A film that will grow on you

Coming as it does nearly three months after a big-ticket Bollywood release — Kabir Khan’s “New York” is a relief.

The story of three friends whose lives change in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York, the film manages to hold your attention for the most part, mainly because of some astute direction and its performances.

Sam (John Abraham), Maya (Katrina Kaif) and Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) are three friends who lead a carefree life on the grounds of New York State University. 

Omar harbours a secret crush for Maya and is devastated to learn she loves Sam. He moves away from their lives, only to re-enter it seven years later, in totally different circumstances.

Why he does so and the circumstances emerging from that incident form the gist of the story. The film is a story of three people and their relationship over the years but it is also a comment on the aftermath of terrorism and the practices we use to curb this dreaded menace.

Yuvvraaj: A brilliant score let down by a lacklustre script

Setting out to create a Bollywood blockbuster? Just make sure you have all the right ingredients — big budget, famous actors, foreign locales, fabulous music.

Wait, something’s missing — yes, the script.

Unfortunately for Subhash Ghai, the era of formula films has long gone and even the most ambitious project can’t afford to take it easy in the writing department.

And that’s where “Yuvvraaj”, the 18th film by a director known as Bollywood’s ‘Showman’, fails despite liberal doses of Ghai’s trademark opulence and grandeur.

Essentially the story of three brothers, “Yuvvraaj” revolves around the free-for-all that ensues when a London-based billionaire dies, leaving behind his fortune to autistic son Gyanesh Yuvvraaj (Anil Kapoor).

It’s a bitter blow for estranged sibling Deven (Salman Khan), who has been struggling to make  ends meet as a chorus singer in a Prague orchestra. He also needs the moolah to impress sweetheart Anushka’s (Katrina Kaif) wealthy father who is not too happy about their relationship.

And so Deven trudges back to the Yuvvraaj family’s London mansion, from where he had been kicked out twelve years earlier. He finds it infested with his dead mother’s relatives, all eyeing a share in the family property.

Leave your brains behind for “Singh is Kinng”

 I don’t think “Singh is Kinng” will fail at the box-office. The film may work for a number of reasons, but content is not one of them.   

“Singh is Kinng”, which stars Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, epitomises the much used phrase for most Bollywood films — leave your brains behind. The director, writers and the actors in this film certainly did.

 Kumar plays Happy Singh, a bumbling Sikh in a small village in Punjab. He spends his time chasing hens and generally wreaking havoc.

Fed up of his antics, the villagers send him away to Australia on the pretext of bringing back Lucky Singh (yeah, they got really creative with names in this film), a villager who has become a mafia don Down Under, so that Lucky’s ageing parents can meet him.

Accompanying Happy is his friend, Rangeela, played by Om Puri, (it pains me to see one of India’s best actors stuck in such mindless roles). Somehow the duo land up in Egypt, just long enough for Happy to set his eyes on Sonia (Katrina Kaif), fall in love and  do a flashy dance sequence with the pyramids as the backdrop.

Happy now heads to Australia to convince Lucky to give up his erring ways and come back to the village in India.

From here on, the film is a series of accidents, both real and intended. Lucky almost gets killed, Happy takes his place as the King (of what, we are never told) and we realise that random foreigners are trying to kill Happy/Sonia (at this point I didn’t even want to know why).