Heroine Feels like Plain soda

Making a statement like "watch the story behind stardom unfold" really ratchets up the viewers expectations even before they go for the movie and this can definitely go two ways as far as the fate of the movie is concerned.

As the movie starts Madur Bhandarkar(MB) seems to be obviously confused about how to narrate the movie as he keeps shuttling between a journalist(the audience is not told who she is and what she is actually doing) talking about Mahi Arora(Kareena Kapoor) and at times continuing the movie without her narration. Neither does he delve on Mahi Arora's inspiration behind becoming a film star and how good she is as an actress. This makes her characterisation very weak to begin with and doesn't help matters in the latter half of the movie when things are left to the imagination of the viewers. At 2 hours and 40 minutes the movie feels too long and could have been wrapped up sooner without confusing the audience even more about Mahi's motivations in her life and her long term goals.

Whatever said and done credit must be given in some areas as it is well cast and packed with a powerful performance from Kareena Kapoor. Ranvir Shorey excels as an eccentric parallel movie director and Divya Dutta gives a solid account of herself as a PR representative. Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda also do their parts with required conviction. The screenplay and dialogues are also quite juicy and keeps you engaged at most times except during the last half an hour.

All in all Heroine is one of those movies which leaves you feeling like you had a bottle of plain soda when the credits start rolling at the end of the movie, lots of fizz that hits you but no discernable flavour. MB tries to weave in too many contemporary media stories into the movie and in the end fails to send out any singular message. The movie succeeds in parts but as a whole its meets the fate of one of those boxers who dominate all the rounds till the second last one only to get knocked out in the last round.





 

John Carter(3d) - Martian Mediocrity

When one goes to see the preview of a Disney blockbuster centered around a character who has been around for quite a while it is expected to spawn a major franchise or die a painful death. Unfortunately for this movie the latter seems to be the ominous fate awaiting it.

The movie starts with an introduction to Barsoom(alternate name for Mars) and its populace. A screenplay which slowly reveals the state of things rather than a in your face lecture would have been definitely more apt for a 12+ rated movie like John Carter(JC). After the introduction  John Carter(Taylor Kitsch) is shown trying to evade stalkers on earth and arranges for his will to be made on an emergency basis. Later he is declared as deceased upon which the sole heir of his properties Edgar Rice Burroughs(Daryl Sabara), his nephew arrives. He is handed over his uncle's diary as per JC's instruction in the will.  Edgar starts to read his uncle's diary and so begin the adventures of John Carter.

John Carter accidently reaches Barsoom(Mars) during one of his cave exploring ventures and is on a journey of discovery. The movie slows down at this point and out glare the inadequacies of the movie. There is a clear lack of imagination on the part of the fimmakers as they opt for cheesy dialogues and mundane screenplay. A major letdown for the movie is the wooden acting of Lynn Collins (Dejah Thoris). She displays in oodles of screen time that she was a very poor choice for the role as she is not able to create any chemistry with Taylor Kitsch. 

Things thankfully move faster in the second half and so the ineffectual drama is sidelined by CG and JC's jumping antics.  The filmmakers should have developed a better script with the available source material for the character. With uneven pace, poor acting and dialogues and an unimaginative screenplay what could have been an epic ends up as an also ran!

Agneepath - Production Design Spectacle

The above image was chosen from all the available images for this movie simply because even though Hritik Roshan (Vijay) as the protagonist is stupendous the other actors seen in the poster Priyanka Chopra, Rishi kapoor and Sanjay Dutt also put their indelible stamp on the movie with their sublime performances. I have only a faint memory of watching the original Big B starrer Agneepath and am so in no position to make any comparisons.

The movie starts on a humdrum note in the sleepy salt cultivating village of Mandwa and the screenplay takes its own time to show the life of young vijay(Arish Bhiwandiwala) in the village and the strong bond between young Vijay and his father who is the headmaster of the village school. Arish Bhiwandiwala excels in portraying Vijays childhood and things get more interesting and intense from the moment young Vijay arrives in Mumbai with his pregnant mother(Zarina Wahab) after losing his father to Kancha Cheema's(Sanjay Dutt) treachery in Mandwa. Young Vijay decides that power is what he needs to get back at Kancha Cheema and decides to side with rival gang leader Rauf Lala(Rishi Kapoor).

Things fast forward by 15 years and Vijay Deenanath Chauhan( now Hritik Roshan) is described by Commissioner of Police( Amrish Puri) as the key person in Rauf Lala's gang who has some other goal in his life as he gives away all his earnings to the needy. The rest of the movie is about how Vijay reaches Kancha Cheema and has enough enough emotional charge and depth in the script to keep you engaged. Karan Johar's shadow direction is evident from the melodrama.

Production design is the main highlight of the movie and makes the visual experience ultra savoury with surreal set pieces which complement and support the cinematography. Kancha Cheema's den and the place with the Banyan tree will remain embedded in your memory for years to come.

The letdowns of the movie are the last half an hour and Katrina Kaif's item number. An out and out skin show Katrina's item number totally lacks the oomph factor of her earlier outings and totally fails to titillate. Her costumes are neither ethnic nor contemporary chic and totally get lost in the dead zone between them.
Now why a scheming Mumbai gang lord like Vijay decides to come alone to Mandwa and take on Kancha Cheema and all his henchmen is beyond me. I definitely was also wrong if i thought that medical miracles( don't want to give it all away) in Bollywood movies were a thing of the past. Considering the revival of the indomitable larger than life heroes in Bollywood in the last two years this movie should be a winner.

Underworld Awakening(3D)- Acrobatic but Uneven

I have seen the previous three installments in the franchise and was expecting an improvement from the previous installment (Rise of the Lycans). The main reason for my optimism was the return of Kate Beckinsale to the franchise (she didn't feature in "Rise of the Lycans").

The movie starts just like the first two installments( "Underworld" and "Underworld:Evolution") i.e with a quick recap/introduction. What surpises you is that just when you expect the movie to slow down after the quick recap, it does not but continues with a quick and uninspiring flash forward replete with action sequences(nothing you haven't seen before) in 3D. The movie continues with its breakneck speed bombarding you with once action sequence after another. At this point i must admit that some of the 3D visuals were impressive even though Kate Beckinsale's (Selene the death dealer) acrobatics had started to become tiresome.And just when you start to wonder whether the movie has any credible storyline or plot the proceedings slow down(thanks to god almighty). You find that your iota of expectation is getting crushed as more and more predictable fare is dished out. Now, which nincompoop wouldn't have predicted that there are still some lycans around and the protagonists Selene and Michael have a child(revealed in the trailer) now. In the last half hour of the movie there is a twist in the plot which i feel salvages its credibility to a large extent. But I shudder to think about this installment of Underworld had it not been made in 3D.

Hangover II - No Encore

I couldn't watch from the start of the movie but reliable sources tell me that this installment also starts with a phone call from Phil (Bradley Cooper). The credits roll and then we enter Stu's (Ed Helms) dental clinic where we learn that this time around it is he who is getting married.  He is getting married in Thailand as he is getting married to a Thai girl and then predictable things move to Thailand.

What is unconvincing is how Phil and Stu who were very cautious about Zack (Galifianakis) feeding them anything at all at the beginning of the movie let their guard down in Thailand and eat the marshmallows provided by him! This time around its Stu's fiancee's brother who goes missing and from then on the movie follows the plot of the first movie which totally robs the movie of the surprise element. Ed Helms and Galifianakis try harder to provide laughs and are over the top at times. Chow (Ken Jeong) joins the wolfpack to make the movie raunchier.

To be honest there certainly are some genuine laughs in this movie. Enter the theatre without too much expectation from this movie and you may come out satisfied!

Saath Khoon Maaf - Never takes off.

If many of you are planning to go to the theatres expecting the kind of cinematic experience VB delivered with his earlier movies Kaminey and Ishkiya you may be in for a disappointment.

Trying to develop a 2 hr 30 minute movie from a short story is a risky venture and Saath Khoon Maaf(SKM) has disappointingly has all the shortcomings that can happen to such a movie. When you watch the movie it becomes obvious that not enough effort has been put into the development of the script. The script writer has not been able to create any sort of depth in the movie and it remains as superficial as the short story would have been. The director forgets that a shallow short story is accepted but not a movie.

Most of the characters including that of the protagonist Susanna(played by PC) are not well defined. PC gives it her but is unable to make a full impression due to the poorly etched charater. You dont know whether to like or dislike her character which makes the movie a little bit of a pain to watch. Annu Kapoor puts up a stellar performance while the other characters which keep the movie interesting are the ones played by Vivaan Shah(Arun Kumar) and Harish Khanna(Gunga). Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Aleksandr Dyachenko and Konkona Sen Sharma impress in the short screen time given to him while the other characters played by Neil Nitin Mukesh and John Abraham are not passable. Neil Nitin Mukesh needs to be told that he was playing a Major in the movie and not a Colonel and John Abraham as usual is not able to get into the skin of his character. Ruskin Bond does a cameo while Usha Uthup's character as the maid is never fully revealed which is an injustice done to a veteran like her.

There are no surprises or twists and turns in the story which could have perhaps made the movie more engaging. You just have to sit and watch the protagonist during the course of her life kill six people which becomes quite a boring countdown. The seventh victim is perhaps the only saving grace of the movie. The make-up on PC and costumes also leave a lot to be desired. Overall an average watch. 

Tron Legacy(3d) - High Octane Visuals

Tron Legacy is a sequel to the 1982 movie Tron which i doubt many people would have seen or even heard about. For one I  havent seen it so there is no room for making any comparisons.

In the beginning of the movie itself the audience is informed that not everything in the movie is 3d and so no one is taken by surprise when the movie starts in 2d with the conversation between Kevin Flynn(Young Jeff Bridges) and Sam Flynn (as a boy) in 1982. Kevin Flynn has built some kind of grid where some miracle has happened and he wants to show it to his son. Kevin Flynn is the primary shareholder of Encom(reminds one of Enron he he), a software company. Soon after that he mysteriously disappears fast forwarding the movie to the present day. Sam Flynn(Garrett Hedlund in present day) evading cops, is ripping away in a Ducati to Encom, to steal a new OS the company has just developed and make it freely available on the internet. Very soon he discovers his fathers secret office courtesy of his fathers friend(Alan) and gets sucked into the grid by accident.

The 3d visuals begin after he enters the grid and the special effects are absolutely marvelous to say the least. Sam soon finds out that the grid is now controlled by a mutinous program(Chloe) developed by his own father in his fathers image and his father is a captive there. The question before Sam now is how can he get his father and himself out of this parallel world and thats what the rest of the movie revolves around.

But the problem with the movie is that the director doesn't dwell much on the science part of the movie so it cannot be placed in the Sci-fi genre. Neither does the movie have enough blood letting or sentiments to put it in the category of an action movie or a drama respectively. Even though the Walt Disney banner prompts one to place it in the kids movie genre that also is foolhardy as pre-teenagers will definitely find large parts of the movie taxing to understand.  So what we have is a mish-mash which on a whole goes nowhere.The ending of the movie is also a bit of a let down as it is not well explained.

Watch it in 3d for some of the visuals!