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Movie Review: RASCALS by FENIL SETA
01 year ago
Once upon a time, a 50+ but dashing actor decides to jump into film production, just like his other counterparts. He wants to launch his banner with a grand film but due to some reason, he doesn’t come across a right script. Hence, he calls his old friend, a hit comedy director. “I acted in your first directorial venture…now it’s time for you to direct my first production venture”, said the actor-turned-producer to the happy-go-lucky director who couldn’t refuse the offer. The director and team fails to come up with a fitting script but the producer still gives the go ahead. But who’ll act in a film which has such a shoddy screenplay? But the actor-producer manages it! He calls his actor-friend and uses the same modus operandi. “I acted in your production 2 Diwalis back…now your turn!”, he told him and got him on board. An actress who’s struggling to break off her ‘psycho’ image jumps at the opportunity of acting in a comedy film, now studded with ‘established names’. A foreigner model who’s offered an item number-special appearance combo too joins the bandwagon. The story-script is laden with extreme stupidity and buffoonery but no one says a word. All carry on their work, hoping that the film miraculously will succeed. But alas! Rascals fails terribly! Easily one of the worst films to come out of 2011! A-V-O-I-D!
The story of the movie: On a single day, Anthony (Arjun Rampal), a gangster, gets conned by 2 conman – Chetan (Sanjay Dutt) and Bhagat (Ajay Devgn). The conmen More >
Movie Review: LOVE BREAKUPS ZINDAGI by TARAN ADARSH
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, October 7, 2011 – 11:30 IST
Love. Dates. Marriage. Commitments. Relationships. Do we ever ponder on what we leave behind, as we move ahead in life? Not many of us introspect. But LOVE BREAKUPS ZINDAGI, a slice of life film, makes you recall certain episodes of your life. Though the film isn’t biographical, one does relate to certain episodes in the narrative for two reasons — they seem straight out of life and of course, first-time writer-director Sahil Sangha makes an effort to tell it with utmost honesty and simplicity. But, unfortunately, he succeeds to a degree!
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMSangha seems to be focused on telling a story, sorry two stories [Zayed-Dia-Vaibhav and Cyrus-Tisca], without magnifying the issues or relying on melodrama. While Sangha sets things up beautifully in the first hour — the film has some remarkable sequences that have been filmed with lots of sensitivity — it’s the post-interval portions that blow away the impact generated by those riveting moments. There are reasons why the second half doesn’t measure up to the expectations: [i] it relies on clichés, [ii] the climax, though well filmed, is way too predictable and of course, [iii] the film is toooo long [almost 2.40 hours] and worse, sluggish and dawdling paced.
LOVE BREAKUPS ZINDAGI is all about relationships and moments. Zayed Khan and Dia Mirza are almost ‘settled’ in their lives; Zayed is in a relationship [with Pallavi Sharda] and so is Dia [with Vaibhav Talwar]. More >
Movie Review: SOUNDTRACK by TARAN ADARSH
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, October 6, 2011 – 14:36 IST
There’s nothing like watching a guy hit the ebb and then trying to crawl back again. The triumph of the human spirit catches our attention all the while. After all, people love watching a good tragedy. SOUNDTRACK, the official remake of the award winning IT’S ALL GONE PETE TONG, narrates one such story.
Rajeev Khandelwal is one of the few actors to have made a successful transition from television to cinema. His choice of films, starting with AAMIR, followed by SHAITAN and now SOUNDTRACK prove that he’s keen to be a part of movies that push the envelope, that push him beyond his boundaries. He’s gradually emerged as the face of intelligent urban cinema. That’s also one of the reasons why SOUNDTRACK catches your attention.
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMSOUNDTRACK may be a ‘small budget film’ [in film parlance], but I strongly believe that budgets, however big or small, can never decide on the quality of cinema. A mockumentary, SOUNDTRACK takes a closer look at a musician’s life faced with a career-ending handicap. It has some heartwarming moments, some amusing moments, some comic moments and some lump in the throat moments.
Very well shot drama with touches of black humor, director Neerav Ghosh deserves immense praise for handling a complex story with amazing maturity. The story is attention-grabbing — it traces his alcohol, drug and sex-fuelled meteoric rise, as he battles his internal demons and a damaging handicap — and I must More >
Movie Review: RASCALS by TARAN ADARSH
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, October 6, 2011 – 10:37 IST
David Dhawan gets wild, wacky… and naughty! He’s back to the ‘spicy’ films he churned out with amazing regularity [and with great success] in the 1990s. RASCALS sees the original badshaah of non-stop laughathons revisit the genre, after a hiatus. Let me describe RASCALS in few words: funny, outrageous, hilarious, uproarious and most importantly, entertaining. In fact, the title as well as the promos of the film had prepared us well in advance about what to expect from this film.
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
Be forewarned. RASCALS is strictly for the hoi polloi, those who relish masala entertainers with glee, those with an appetite for movies that transport them to a different world in those hours spent in the dark auditorium, those who swear by movies that defy logic, motive and intellect. Do you think you fit into this description of a moviegoer? If you do, RASCALS is just for you.
At the same time, RASCALS is definitely *not* for those who tilt towards realistic/pragmatic cinema or for enthusiasts of meaningful/significant cinema or those who disregard masala films. No, nope, naah… this one’s austerely not for them!
Dhawan’s new outing is about two con men who take potshots at each other, trying to pull the other’s pants down with hilarious gimmicks, duping one another or people around them. Most con artist movies are comedies and Dhawan makes it sufficiently clear in the promos that RASCALS would be a fun-fest that’s aimed More >
Movie Review: HAUNTED-3D by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, May 5, 2011 – 21:02 IST
After a series of films belonging to diverse genres, like GHULAM [action drama], KASOOR [suspense thriller], RAAZ [horror] and AWARA PAAGAL DEEWANA [action/comedy], Vikram Bhatt has finally found his calling with a genre that not many storytellers would venture into — horror. Like his previous films, 1920 and SHAAPIT, HAUNTED sells the most basic emotion, fear, but the question is, do the thrills and chills send your adrenaline rushing? Is HAUNTED daunting enough? And does it succeed in giving you those heebie-jeebies that you associate with horror movies?
With HAUNTED, Bhatt merges the deadly combo of horror with 3D effectively. It’s an absorbing and gripping edge of the seat horror film that keeps the mercury rising in those 2.15 hours. This movie is not for the faint-hearted, I wish to state at the very outset.
Write your own movie review of Haunted – 3DFor Bhatt, it all began with RAAZ. He gave the audience a taste of classy, spine chilling horror experience with that film and after a gap of almost six years revisited the genre with 1920 and SHAAPIT. After a trilogy of spooky films and comprehending the genre better, the film-maker delivers yet another scare fest that ranks amongst his most accomplished works so far.
What really sets HAUNTED apart from films of its ilk, even those attempted by Bhatt, is the fact that it never takes the tried-and-tested route or resorts to clich?s while narrating the tale More >
Movie Review: LUV KA THE END by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, May 6, 2011 – 15:28 IST
I can’t help but recall an interesting conversation with Ashish Patil [the enterprising head of Y-Films] soon after Y-Films was formally launched. He opined that India is the world’s youngest country, with 70% of the population below the age of 35 and explained why Y-Films had decided to target this segment of movie-going audience. It works fine — you cater to an audience that loves to hang out at cineplexes. Plus, as a production house, you juice a big business opportunity. Their first movie — LUV KA THE END — is now in theatres, for audience consumption.
Gone are the days when a woman, spurned by the man of her dreams, would sulk in a corner, shed tears of sorrow and spend the rest of her life in his memory. Times have changed. The Gen X, especially those living in a metropolis, thinks differently. Most relationships begin and end at an alarming rate and before you realize what went wrong between two individuals, chances are they would’ve moved on to ‘greener pastures’ [read new partners]. The spurned girl is not a bechaari anymore.
Write your own movie review of Luv Ka The EndIn LUV KA THE END, the 18-year-old seeks revenge, when she realizes that her boyfriend has a hidden agenda. Nope, the damsel in distress doesn’t take the route embarked upon by the offended parties in THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT [adapted in Bollywood as OH BEWAFAA], RETURN TO EDEN [remade as KHOON BHARI MAANG] or THE HAND THAT ROCKS More >
Movie Review: SHOR IN THE CITY by FENIL SETA
02 years ago
2 years ago, there arrived a small gem of a film, 99. Directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, it was a terrific roller-coaster ride and showed how one can come up with a gripping and funny tale based on a true incident. And when the director duo announced their next, Shor In The City, naturally I was waiting for it with bated breath. The film is ready since months but couldn’t release as it was touring festivals, wowing the audiences worldwide! This further upped my curiosity by many notches! Finally, Shor In The City has released and thankfully, meets all the expectations! It is quirky, engaging, completely absorbing and gives a paisa vasool time to the viewers!
The story of the movie: Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is newly married to Sapna (Radhika Apte) and runs an illegal book printing house alongwith his rowdy buddies Mandook (Pitobash Tripathi) and Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi). A routine robbery in the train results in their world going upside down. Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is an NRI who has come back to India to start a new business. As news spread that a rich NRI has arrived, the local goons (Zakir Hussain, Suresh Dubey) threaten him to pay ‘protection money’. Sawan (Sundeep Kishan) is an aspiring cricketer who wishes to get into Under 22 Mumbai Cricket Team. But he realizes that won’t be possible unless he coughs up a huge amount of money, something which he doesn’t have. On the other hand, his girlfriend Sejal (Girija Oak) is pressurizing him to act More >
Movie Review: CHALO DILLI by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, April 29, 2011 – 07:58 IST
Delhi is the ‘centre of attraction’ these days with movie-makers setting the premise of their films in this city. Whether it was the thoroughly enjoyable BAND BAAJA BAARAAT or the much celebrated NO ONE KILLED JESSICA in the recent past, both depicted the flavors of the city, while the city also had a significant role to play in those movies. Now CHALO DILLI, directed by Shashant Shah, talks about a journey that originates in Mumbai, travels to Jaipur and concludes in Delhi.
The moment the synopsis of a film is revealed, a Google search helps you get to the original source of the film. It’s true that CHALO DILLI borrows from DUE DATE [2010], but one can’t help but draw parallels with PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES [1987] either, which remains a benchmark for odd couples embarking on an error-prone adventure.
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMThe basic plotline of CHALO DILLI may have been derived from these two films because DUE DATE and PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES also depicted a chalk-and-cheese pair who is traveling from point A to point B, but CHALO DILLI has been Indianized to make it different from the original films. In fact, the writer ensures that the incidents are desi and hence, different. From dhabas in the middle of the desert to camel cart journeys to the conversation with the Bengali couple in the train, it comes across as a desi film actually.
CHALO DILLI offers opportunity to tap the comic side of More >
Movie Review: NAUGHTY @ 40 by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, April 29, 2011 – 13:04 IST
A week or two ago, while surfing the TV channels, I chanced upon this immensely enjoyable Govinda starrer that was being telecast for the umpteenth time. Despite the fact that I had watched it time and again, I decided to watch it yet again, complimenting and applauding Govinda’s natural act and comic timing in the movie. That Govinda is a fabulous actor cannot be denied. Of course, the reasons for his not being in the limelight could be several, but even his detractors will agree that when it comes to certain roles, he’s pure dynamite.
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMNAUGHTY @ 40, Govinda’s new release, aims at bringing the actor back in the reckoning, a position that he once enjoyed not too long ago. NAUGHTY @ 40 is vintage Govinda fare replete with his by-now-famous characteristics, body language, dialogue delivery and even pelvic thrusts that the masses have gleefully mastered over the years. The only difference is, the actor plays a 40-year-old virgin in this sex comedy.
Clearly inspired by THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, NAUGHTY @ 40 has been adapted to suit the Indian sensibilities. But director Jagmohan Mundhra ensures that it’s not an out-and-out ‘naughty’ experience. The first hour has moments that keep you rolling in your seat as the humor gets raunchier and unsophisticated, laughing at Govinda when his attempts to deal with his problems go awry. From crude hilarity to syrupy sentimentality, the post-interval More >
Movie Review: SHOR IN THE CITY by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, April 25, 2011 – 11:50 IST
A major chunk of the film industry is under the misapprehension that when a film makes it to the festival circuit, it holds zilch prospects at the box-office. It isn’t for the aam aadmi; these films are sans entertainment. Tags such as offbeat and unusual are attached to it, even before the audience can give its mandate. But the perception has gradually changed with time, with more and more people getting cinema literate. These films have been successful in striking a chord with the festival crowd as well as passionate moviegoers. Most importantly, these films have quashed the notion that they aren’t commercially viable.
SHOR IN THE CITY, which won tremendous acclaim at various international festivals, takes this legacy forward. Like some striking films in the past, this one has the power to mesmerize and fascinate the festival crowd as well as those looking for an intelligent film while planning a trip to cineplexes. Yet, it is not one of those regular entertainers that we churn out with amazing regularity and which insult the intelligence of the viewer.
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMGet ready for a film that keeps you on the edge, but at the same time is one helluva entertaining film. As a film, SHOR IN THE CITY absorbs you into its world in no time. It is slick, has a lot of nervous energy and also has its share of fun moments. This one actually stands out in the crowd due to its unconventional plotline as More >