Love Aaj Kal : Movie Review

Directed By-
Imitiaz Ali

Produced By-
Saif Ali Khan and Dinesh Vijan

Featuring-
Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna..


The drought of good movies that seemed to have taken over Bollywood from the past few months ends with Love Aaj Kal releasing this week. Directed by Imitiaz Ali, Love Aaj Kal in one word is Fantastic. Keeping his previous stint of success with him Imitiaz Ali has delivered a love story that is narrated in a surprisingly innovative way. Shot in different parts of London, San Francisco, Old-Delhi and Punjab, Love Aaj Kal shows a fantastic blend of two love stories one in the past -"Love Kal" and the other in the present - "Love Aaj" crisscrossed, linking the past to the present.

Love Aaj Kal is a cross of two love stories, one of Jai Vardhan Singh( Saif Ali Khan) andMeera Pandit(Deepika Padukone) the other of Veer Singh(Saif Ali Khan/Rishi Kapoor) and Harleen Kaur (Shweta Gulati/Neetu Singh). Jai and Meera two modern independent career oriented people living in London fall in love and as times pass by, decide to break up and move on with their respective careers in a rather happy way with an unusual break up-party unlike other break up's. Here's when he meets Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor) a owner of a coffee shop, who keeps hinting Jai of the mistakes that he is making considering the break up with Meera. Very soon, Veer Singh( Rishi Kapoor) is then seen narrating his love story with Harleen back in Punjab years ago. The stories of Jai and Veer are then played alternately showing the obvious overlapping instances between both the love stories. The story post Jai's break up and the various fun moments is for you to figure it out yourself.


Love Aaj Kal doesn't really disappoint you at any level irrespective of what expectations you had with the movie. The highlight of the movie is the naive love story of Veer and Harleen, that brings with it a lot of innocent-natural-spontaneous moments that you will surely enjoy and relish even after your out of the theater. Beautifully done are the links between the two stories with hint of light humor.

Imitiaz Ali has yet again selected and used his resources intelligently. Saif Ali Khan impresses you with both Jai and young Veer's role playing it quite convincingly. Deepika Padukone's performance is average and is definitely impressive in certain parts of the movie. Rishi Kapoor is good and delivers a fun performance. Rahul Khanna is seen on a role thats quiet and there's not much for him in the movie. Debutant Shweta Gulati looks raw with her acting and yet is bang on for the role of Harleen surprisingly making you like her as the movie progresses.

The music by Pritam is stupendous and simply one of his best composed albums. The picturisation and the songs compliment each other really well. Tracks like "Chor Bazaari", "Twist", "Yeh Doorian".. being the highlights of the album

Imitiaz Ali has literally left no stone unturned to give Love Aaj Kal that classic refreshing feel.
I will go with 8 BOP's for Imitiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal.





Don't miss this flick.

P.S: BOP stands for Buckets of Popcorn. New rating system instead of stars, as this site is transforming into new review site. More reviews at- www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Luck (2009)

1 star out of 5

What's it all about?

A bunch of very 'lucky people' participate in a survival game orchestrated by mafia boss, Karim Moosa (Sanjay Dutt), who is on a mission to establish and lead the human-betting business. Instead of 'survival of the fittest', it's 'survival of the luckiest' here. So you have Ram Mehra (Imran Khan), Major Jawar Pratap Singh (Mithun Chakraborty), serial killer Raghav (Ravi Kissen), sixteen-year old Shortcut (Chitrashi Rawat) and Natasha (Shruti Hassan) relying solely on luck to win this bizarre game of life and death.

Direction & Screenplay

Writer-director, Soham Shah, needs hardcore lessons in script-writing. Shah's story and character development skills are zilch and funnily enough, he always ends up writing the silliest climax imaginable. If Kaal was a nightmare, then Luck is the mother of all nightmares. There were no gargantuan expectations from Shah but it was very disappointing to see Renzil D'Silva's name in the screenplay credits. Isn't he the same guy who wrote Aks and Rang De Basanti?

Performances

Another huge disappointment is in store for those who are expecting Shruti Hassan to match her father's (Kamal Hassan) acting abilities. Alas, the young lady's debut is as thanda as it can get. Shruti's flat dialogue delivery and lack of expression is a big turn-off. Oh, and the bikini-scene is total nonsense. But wait, it doesn't mean that she's devoid of talent. Shruti is a gifted musician and she sings her version of Luck Aazma with much aplomb. Imran Khan is another misfit who looks completely uncomfortable throughout the film. He should stick to rom-coms for now; I'm sure there's plenty of time to experiment later. Bhojpuri bhaiyya, Ravi Kissen, and Chitrashi Rawat are entertaining in their silly roles. Sanjay Dutt and Danny Denzongpa bore you to death with their endless lectures about luck and all that, and there's some more guaranteed boredom with Mithun's cheesy catchphrase, 'Koi Shaque?', last heard in J.P. Dutta's Ghulami.

Music

Salim-Sulaiman's compositions are above average but music in an action-thriller is unnecessary. A robust background score would be more appropriate. Amar Mohile does a good job, aptly supported by Hari Dwarak's impressive sound design.

Stunts

A film like Luck needs a good dose of high-octane stunts but Allan Amin's action lacks punch. Full marks for the opening train sequence, however, the underwater and parachute scenes are not very convincing. Spielberg's Jaws did a better job with the sharks and that was way back in 1975. The climax involving a speeding train, a plane and some explosions is a joke, not because of the stunts but because of the actors who are performing them and the Aazma Luck track that accompanies the entire sequence. Do save a few laughs as there is much more in store for you, thanks to Imran, Ravi and Shruti.

FINAL VERDICT

Luck is a big turkey and it's worse than Soham Shah's mediocre debut, Kaal. Bad luck Soham.

Twitsters have their say about Luck:

jun6lee - All-in-all, I was torn between, 'this is quite novel' and 'it could be done so much better, if'...upto the pre-climax that is. This is when it dropped into the pits of hell. The big end-game was just plain lame & made no sense.

shamail - Luck is an awesome movie, after a long time I've seen a Bollywood movie comparable to Hollywood.

ronakjain90 - Luck is a total non-sense movie. Please watch it only if you can digest that.

baxiabhishek - Back from Luck. What the #$%^, such a suck, full of muck, my bad luck, yuck yuck yuck!

filmigirl - This masala lover says: updated take on Gumnaam. Ridiculous but fun - slow start but ending is great!

Shortkut - The Con is On (Movie Review)

Directed By-
Neeraj Vora

Produced By-
Anil Kapoor

Featuring-
Akshay Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao..


Yet another movie to go absolutely impact less at the box office this week. Directed by Neeraj Vora, Shorkut is boring and is as predictable as it can get. No wonders were really expected from Neeraj Vora having seen his previous stint as a director. Shorkut disappoints you even more because the promos looked a lot good if not really impressive. Having actors with a such impeccable comic timing, the director fails to capitalize and relies on the writing skills of Anees Bazmee to do the job rather than the actors. Shorkut portrays itself to be a movie filled with humor, which sadly isn't. The scenes that are close to funny are already unveiled in the promos and there's no real surprise element in the complete package.

Shorkut - The Con is On's two male protagonists, Shekhar(Akshay Khanna) and Raju(Arshad Warsi) an struggling asst director and a wanna-be actor respectively each of whom believe in different values to make it big. Shekhar, a hardworking-determined-conventional lad who believes in efforts rather than luck to find himself achieve things that he dreams of, which is writing and directing a movie someday. Raju on the other hand is careless-unrealistic- easy-way-out-kinda lad who believes in shortcuts to becoming an actor rather than skills and hard work. Shekhar is seen desperately working on scripts to realize his directorial dreams, so as to confess the secret love with already established actress Mansi(Amrita Rao) to the world. Shekhar's dreams are then shattered when Raju steals his script to trigger a acting career out of the stolen script. The race to career glory of both Shekhar and Raju is for you to watch it yourself.

Shorkut fails to engage you even for a petty continuous stretch of ten minutes forget the complete running time of the movie. The transition of the movie from the humor zone to the serious-emotions zone is something that is hard to digest provided scenes involving Arshad Warsi. The actors are seen on characters that so poorly written that actually makes you wonder did Arshad Warsi actually play a Cirkit. Shorkut, a movie that could have helped Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao to revitalize their wavered career is indeed not going to. Akshaye Khanna looks decent as always and looks to contribute filling in the patches. Chunkey Pandey is seen on a role that looks dumb and definitely not funny.

The music bu Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is average except for "Patli Gali", which seems to received really well among the audience.

I will go with 4 out of 10 for Neeraj Vora's Shortkut - The Con is On.
Please avoid this flick!

If anyone can get this across to Anil Kapoor, i want to know what was Anees Bazmee doing as a writer of this movie?

(Orginally posted at "Your Movie Critic" - www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com)

Kambakkht Ishq

Directed By-
Sabir Khan

Produced By-
Sajid Nadiadwala

Featuring-
Akshaye Kumar, Kareena Kumar, Aftab Shivdasani,..

Now i apologize if i said Kal Kissne Dekha had the potential to be the worst movie of the year, now here's bollywood's much awaited and talked about movie which will quite simply go ahead and win the award comprehensively in the worst movie category this year. Directed by Sabir Khan, Kambakkht Ishq in one word is "nonsense". I know one could hardly expect anything from Akshaye Kumar after CC2C, but this really broke the barrier of making some real hard core senseless cinema. Its quite impossible to believe the fact that the makers of Kambakkht Ishq actually thought just Akshaye Kumar and Kareena Kapoor could make a movie run at the box office and not the script.

Kambhakkt Ishq's protagonist Viraj Shergill(Akshaye Kumar) a stuntman by profession who strictly believes in the fact of staying bachelor and is quite successful to pass on the same values to his brother Lucky Shergill(Aftab Shivdasani) another stuntman by profession until the day he finds out himself about Lucky's marriage plans with Kamini(Amrita Arora) a model. Now here's where he bumps into Simrita(Kareena Kapoor) , Kamini's friend who thinks the same way about men as Viraj does about women.

Now till about this point, i think director Sabir had a script in place and was seriously planning on something really good with the movie until the first song rolled out. I wonder what the director was thinking while filming this song. The scenes right after the song make you feel like walking out of your seat right away. Kambakkht Ishq, is not a comedy movie if you think it is. Its a movie that even the director is not sure to which genre this movie belongs to. You can actually count the parts that are actually funny ignoring the cheap scenes which lack every hint of homour. Actors like Javed Jaffri, Boman Irani and Kirron Kher are seen on roles which are poorly written and absolutely make no sense in the movie. The cameo's by hollywood stars adds no value whatsoever. The scenes meant for a star like Sylvester Stallone are lame and adds to your frustration.

The music by Anu Malik is as pathetic as the script. The songs are lousy and definitely something that you would love to fastforward if given a chance. I waited patiently till the credits actually rolled for something that could make me like this movie. But sadly, there's wasn't one thing that you can like abut the movie.

For fans of Akshaye Kumar, please avoid this flick if you want to remain his fan for long. And the rest looking forward for this movie this weekend - A big NO !!

I will go with 3 out 10 for Sabir Khan's Kambakkht Ishq.
Double thumbs down to Nadiadwala for making it and Akshaye Kumar for acting in it.

www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

New York

Directed By-
Kabir Khan

Produced By-
Yash Raj Films

Featuring-
John Abraham,Katrina Kaif,Neil Nitin Mukesh..

The most awaited release from the Yash Raj Banner this year, New York is good yet not convincing. Directed by Kabir Khan, New York is definitely a worth watch. After Kabul Express's disastrous performance at the box office, Kabir Khan had to bounce back with something really impactful and is successful up to an extent. Having actors with mediocre acting abilities, Kabir Khan has managed to pull off a pretty good movie and again with a script that seems quite close to reality.

New York, a movie that revolves around 3 friends,Omar(Neil Nitin Mukesh),Sam(John Abraham) and Maya(Katrina Kaif) in the city of New York and their life post 9/11. The movie starts off with Omar being interrogated by Roshan(Irfan Khan) an agent with the FBI relating to Sam being involved in terrorist activities in the US. Omar is convinced rather threatened to enter Sam's life and dish out information about Sam's other suspect activities. The events that follow Omar entering Sam's Life is for you to watch it yourself.

New York, is very much engaging though predictable in most of the instances. Prominently visible are the glitches in the script. However, even with such glitches Kabir Khan executes it pretty well. The actors are just above average, except for Irfan Khan who looks as stunning as always with his performance. .

The Music by Pritam is the only thing that impresses you right away. Especially "Junoon" and "Tum Ne Jo Na Kaha". Looks like Pritam is back to his glory days with this one.


I will go with 7 out of 10 for Kabir Khan's New York.

Kal Kissne Dekha

Directed By,
Vivek Sharma

Produced By,
Vashu Bhagnani

Featuring,
Jacky Bhagnani, Vaishali Desai, Rishi Kapoor

Written and Directed by Vivek Sharma, Kal Kissne Dekha in one word is awful. Produced by Vashu Bhagnani KKD is so terribly written, that it could be a potential worst movie for this year. Vivek Sharma was pretty decent if not impressive with his previous venture Bhoothnath, but with KKD his skills seems to have gone absolutely hay-wire. Its obvious that not everyone expects a movie like KNPH to be their debut movie, but KKD is so terribly scripted that even debutants Jacky Bhagnani and Viashali Desai's sincere efforts in the movie are covered up. Its yet another Sc-Fi fiction.

Kal Kissne Dekha's protagonist Nihal Singh(Jacky Bhagnani) is a boy from a small village near Chandigarh who wishes to study science and dreams of making it big someday. Who is then seen convincing his mom to pursue his ambitions, moving into another city. Nihal being a gifted boy with a power of seeing the future is then seen comforting the college life when circumstances lead to Nihal falling in love with Meesha(Viashali Desai), a beautiful brat in college. Now the plot of the movie till this part is predictable and more of a 90's kinda college . But from the time they actually start executing the Sci-Fi bit of the movie is when it actually loses its plot.

I do not understand, Why a Sci-Fi flavor to a love story? When its not executed the way its meant to be. Kal Kissne Dekha might have done the trick if not wonders had Vivek Sharma made KKD a simple love story. However, with so many negative aspects about the movie and so many things that has not worked for KKD, the debut leads are definitely good even with such poorly written characters. Both Jacky Bhagnani and Viashali Desai have shown off their acting skills well and it definitely looks like they have a lot more potential than what they have been shown on screen. Rishi Kapoor who plays a Scientist/Professor is above average and looks like he wants to seriously contribute but what can one do when the whole script is so faulty. The actors like Rietesh Deshmukh and Juhi Chawla are seen on guest appearances that makes you feel even more frustrated as the movie sails along. When Vashu Bhagnani can produce a decent debut movie like Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai for Tusshar Kapoor, why couldnt he do the same for his own son?

The music of KKD is close to ordinary and again not impressive.

I will go with 3 out of 10, for Vivek Sharma's Kal Kissne Dekha.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writers Lounge

P.S: I seriously apologize for being inactive on the Lounge all these days.

8 X 10 Tasveer : Movie Review

Written and Directed by
Nagesh Kukunoor

Produced by
Percept Picture Company

Featuring
Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore..

8 X 10 Tasveer, written and Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor is another Sci-Fi-Suspense-Thriller releasing this week. After the disastrous blow with Bombay to Bangkok, Nagesh Kukunoor tries his hand at thriller this time and succeeds to some extent. 8 X 10 Tasveer is entertaining and dumb too. Its a fairly new concept executed in a convincing way but doesn't really impress you much.

8 X 10 Tasveer's protagonist Jai Puri(Akshay Kumar) an officer with the Environmental Protection Society is gifted with a stupendous power of going back in time through photographs and watch the last few minutes of a person's life moments after the photograph is clicked replayed in his mind. But he can stay inside the photograph upto a maximum of 1 min after which he finds himself fighting for life. He's seen helping out people find their loved ones using this power of his. His dad's untimely death which is suspected as a murder by the funny detective Happi(Javed Jafri) is when Jai actually feels the necessity to find the events that lead to his dad's death through the photograph clicked moments before his death. The quest of Jai along with his fiance Sheela(Ayesha Takia) to find the actual reason behind his dad's murder is something that cannot be revealed and is left to you to watch out for yourself.

8 X 10 Tasveer is engaging and keeps you guessing almost till the end. The climax is where you feel you were let down and let down big time. I guess Nagesh Kukunoor totally forgot what he was making when he scripted the climax of 8 X 10 Tasveer. Its yet another movie that spoils the fun right at the end. But its definitely a good watch. Akshay Kumar is finally seen in something that's far from his usual slapstick comedy. He looks convincing after a long time. Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad and the others are ordinary. 8 X 10 Tasveer's script could have better had it been looked into more seriously. CC2C proved that only Akshay Kumar cannot run a movie with his charm and its holds good with 8 X 10 Tasveer as well. The marketing factor could also hit Nagesh Kukunoor's ambitions with 8 X 10 Tasveer. Had Nagesh done the climax well, it could have done the trick for him.

The music by Salim Sulaiman is ordinary. Remix version of "Nazaara Hai" being the most catchy one. The background music is impressive and goes well with the suspense part of the movie.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Nagesh Kukunoor's 8 X 10 Tasveer.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

More Reviews on:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Aa Dekhen Zara : Movie Review

Directed By:
Jehangir Surti

Produced By:
Eros Pictures Pvt.Ltd

Featuring:
Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev..

Aa Dekhen Zara, a Sci-fi action thriller first of its kind in Bollywood released this week with no other competitors at the box office. Directed by debutant director Jehangir Surti, Aa Dekhen Zara is a good watch with every ingredient rightly added.
The script is good not great. Being Neil Nitin Mukesh's second movie, ADZ is not a Johnny Gaddar and doesn't even come close. First half is absolutely engaging and keeps you on your toes right till the intermission. As a few previous flicks,the script of ADZ too is let loose as the passing second half.

Aa Dekhen Zara's, protagonist Ray(Neil Nitin Mukesh) a photographer finds himself a camera left off by his dead grandfather which quite amusingly clicks photos, when developed shows the future of the people in the photos. During one such camera encounter is when he accidentally runs into Simi(Bipasha Basu) a DJ at a club. Ray adds color to his struggling life by the aid of the camera to win bucks through Lottery, Horse Racing and various other sources. He then starts living a polished life with Simi when fate strikes. He finds himself chased by both cops and Captain(Rahul Dev) to get hold of the camera. To add to Ray's agony is when, he finds out that he's going to be dead in a week's time and all he has is 7 days to find a safe place both for the camera and Simi. The events that lead upto the climax is for you to see it youself.

Aa Dekhen Zara is fresh and feels good. Second half of the movie is more of the typical Bollywood chases and makes you feel restless as it seems never ending.
All the actors are pretty decent and nothing appreciable. Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu both look good together and their screen presence is felt right away.
Rahul Dev with his age old trademark negative role is spot on.

Music of ADZ is composed by Pritam and its average. Though nothing remarkable is seen in the Music Department, the album of ADZ is not a bad one.
Though being an above average watch, the trick that is going to work for ADZ, is the marketing factor which was done quite superbly and that is going to pull people to the theaters.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Jehangir Surti's Aa Dekhen Zara.

A good watch for this weekend.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

More reviews on:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Barah Aana : Movie Review

Produced & Directed by: Raja Menon
Featuring: Nasseruddin Shah, Vijay Raaz, Arjun Mathur

6/10

Firstly, extremely sorry for reviewing the movie so late.

Written, produced and directed by Raja Menon, Barah Aana is a below average watch. The movie that claims to be a comic flick doesn't even come close to making you laugh and the maximum that you can probably do is to smile at a few scenes. I cannot believe the fact that an actor like Nasserudin Shah is wasted in this movie. Barah Aana's script is extremely ordinary and execution of it is where Raja Menon goes wrong. His way of story telling doesn't impress and it is sure to make you bored. This movie doesn't engage you for more than a stretch of 5 minutes at a time.

Barah Aana is a story of three poor and simple individuals Shukla (Nasseruddin Shah), a car driver, Yadav (Vijay Raaz), a watchman in a housing society and Aman (Arjun Mathur), a waiter at a restaurant. All their lives change when they involve themselves into a crime accidentally committed by Yadav. Both Aman and Shukla find their reasons for committing the crime, may it be Shukla's grudge against the owner's wife or Aman's attempt to save his love. And how things lead up to the climax is for you to watch.

Barah Aana is definitely a light comedy. A light comedy that makes you smile and nothing else. Barah Aana's soul are the actors in it. Vijay Raaz is the most impressive of the lot. He recreates the magic created by in him in Raghu Romeo (2003) that had him in the lead. He's funny and emotional. Arjun Mathur after petty roles in movies like Luck By Chance etc, gets a slightly important role in Barah Aana and he does justice to the role completely showing his potential. He's good in every part of the movie. The setback of Barah Aana is the execution of the script. It's way too ordinary to make an impact. Nasseruddin Shah goes totally unnoticed which is quite rare for the actor of his caliber.

Barah Aana is a below average watch but not that bad after all.

I'll go with 6 out of 10 for Raja Menon's Barah Aana.
Thumbs down for wasting Nasseruddin Shah in the movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

More Reviews on:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Little Zizou : Movie Review

Directed By:
Sooni Taraporevala
Produced By:
Sooni Taraporevala and I Indian Films
Featuring:
Boman Irani,Sohrab Ardeshir,Imad Shah,Dilshad Patel,Shernaz Patel..



Written, Directed and Produced by Sooni Taraporevala and distributed by Studio 18 Little Zizou just manages to make it to the above average category. Sooni has been a part of almost every Mira Nair venture right from Salaam Bombay to The Namesake. After such a vast experience with a different genres of movies, the expectation bar was already set high for Sooni with Little Zizou which does not even come close to the movies that she's previously worked on. Little Zizou is definitely a fresh script that simply is made for the multiplex audience. The movie is a little funny and a little emotional had it been funny or emotional completely, it would've done the trick.

Little Zizou is a story of 2 Parsi Families called the Khodaiji's and Pressvala's.
Cyrus Khodaiji(Sohrab Ardeshir) who claims to be a religious Parsi healer wanting to establish an liberation organization for the parsi's is often troubled by his parsi counterpart Boman Pressvala(Boman Irani) who owns a Parsi news journal and is against the values and principles of Cyrus Khodaiji and makes sure to print articles against him everytime.The youngest little boy of the Khodaiji family is Xerxes or Little Zizou(Jahan Bativala) a football freak who idolizes Zinedine Zidane and hopes to meet the football star if he ever toured Mumbai. His brother Artaxerxes(Imad Shah) an soft spoken artist and who visualizes life through his weird cartoons and dreams to build a Flight Simulator with his two other friends. The young little gal of the Pressvala's is Liana, who is clever and witty. The story just revolves around this subject and things go way too complicated when people react to the articles written by Boman Pressvala. The events that follow is to watch out for.

Little Zizou is a movie that could be watched once. It entertains you convincingly till the first half concludes but gets a little slow as you step into the second half. What is really good about the movie is, it keeps you with it till the credits roll. The two child actors Iyanah Bativala and Jahan Bativala steal the show. They're absolutely lovely and makes you love them as you watch the movie. They're naive and funny. Sohrab Ardeshir, who's seen mostly in ad-films gets his nod to show his acting skills and is impressive too. Boman Irani is very good as usual.
Dilshad Patel,Shernaz Patel and Imad Shah have their done their bit convincingly.

Music by Bickram Ghosh is ordinary and suits the subject of the movie quite well.
Little Zizou could be your movie for this weekend provided many releases this week.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou.

And a thumbs up to the two child actors of the movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

13B - Movie Review

13B, produced by Big Pictures and directed by Vikram Kumar is more of a thriller with a slight hint of horror, is an average movie. 13B lacks the energy that a thriller movie needs to carry right till the end. Again this movie is engaging and makes you cling on to your seats only in parts. The script is let loose on most of the occasions.
However 13B doesn't disappoint once you're done watching it.

13B's protagonist Manohar(Madhavan)an civil engineer moves in to a new flat 13B with his family. Strange events follow, after their entrance into the building. Every event makes Manohar aware of the presence of something that's very unusual like the camera in his phone or the lift in the building. Till one day when he finds out that a daily soap on TV which starts siring at exactly 13:00 p.m resembles the story of his own family and how the family's future is dependent on the Daily Soap. A series of unpleasant incidents follow, making Manohar desperate to solve the mystery about the Soap and characters in it. He goes on to find out, how a family was brutally murdered in 1977 in their home which marked the same house number and address as his own apartment. The uncanny events that follow are something to seriously watch out for.

13B is an sincere attempt by the debutant director Vikram Kumar to give the audience a good movie but he just manages to make it a average watch. 13B's main highlight are the actors, who have done a stupendous job. Madhavan is absolutely spot on with a very good performance supported well by the rest of the cast. Not impressive but certainly good are the old creepy sound scares. 13B could have been better had there been no songs.

Music of 13B is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is nothing to be talked about. The music is ordinary and totally unnecessary provided the theme of the movie.
Background Scores by Tubby and Parik are definitely good.

At the end of the day, 13B is an average movie.
Go with no expectations and you may well like it.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Vikram Kumar's 13B.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge.

For more reviews:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Delhi 6 : Movie Review

Delhi 6, a release from the UTV Movies and ROM Productions released today the 20th February worldwide. Directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Delhi 6 is a good film but it slightly leans towards being an average watch. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra fails to recreate the magic that RDB created 3 years ago. But again, he continues to point out the hard hitting reality and this time with Delhi 6 goes on to script a movie about the most common social- religious issue told in a very unique and special way.

Delhi 6's protagonist Roshan(Abhishek Bachchan) is an American born Indian residing in the city of New York. He decides on coming to India with his grandmother(Waheeda Rahman)following her bad health who desires to stay in Chandni Chowk of Delhi in her last years of her life. Here is where he meets Bittu(Sonam Kapoor) the daughter of an old family acquaintance who simply is the typical bubbly-traditional chandni chowk gal. Roshan goes on to experience warmth of the people of Chandni Chowk and the whole new culture. He too comes across the whole news saga regarding the "Kaala Bandar" or the "Black Monkey" that has become the talk of the town after the attacks killing people and injuring a few.
Now, the above few events are the only things that take up the whole first half of the movie making it engaging in very few parts.

The movie goes on to show, how the lives of the people in Chandni Chowk are disrupted due to the communal violence following a Sadhu's advice of building a temple in place of a Masjid claiming that a temple existed in the same place as the Masjid years ago. During these events is when, Roshan falls for Bittu. The whole set of events following the violence that leads up to the climax is certainly something that cannot be explained just because of the unnecessary things that's added on to the movie. Just when you feel the movie is getting better with the flowing second half, climax hits you and hits you quite hard. The climax of the movie is something that Rakesh Ompraksh Mehra will be asked and re-asked from the numerous people in the film fraternity about why he chose on such a weak climax which is really dramatic and that is more of a thing,that's hard to digest following climax of RDB.

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra though has chosen an unique way to convey the message to the masses through the whole "Kaala Bandar" thing but again annoys the audience with the too much of "Kaala Bandar" in the first half and the whole "news flash" about it.
Though Abhishek Bachchan occupies most of the screen time does a good job. But the highlight is Sonam Kapoor, and she's delivered sincere honest acting which every viewer is sure to like. Waheeda Rahman too does justice to her character. Om Puri, Vijay Raaz, Pawan Malhotra and Divya Dutta are quite exceptional in the movie providing some humorous scenes in the movie. Atul Kulkarni is the one actor who is certainly not used to his best potential after his flawless performance in RDB.

The music of Delhi 6 is very good.
A.R.Rahman again scores, with an amazing album. "Masakali" being the most liked and hummed one.

Delhi 6 is definitely an average watch after all the expectations from Rakesh Omprakash Mehra. He fails to reach to the level of his own best RDB.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi 6.
Could be your movie for the weekend.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Find more reviews here:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Billu Barber : Movie Review

Billu Barber, this year's most expected release from the Red Chillies Banner simply turns out to be an ordinary watch. Directed by Priyadarshan, who's known for his Malayalam remakes in Hindi yet again fails to mark the everlasting impression on the audience. Billu Barber definitely looks like a sincere effort to make everyone like the movie. The movie starts off with low pace and just when you feel the movie is catching pace,the curtains are down.

Billu Barber's protagonist Billu(Irfan Khan) is a petty barber from the village called Budbuda who struggles to earn every penny but still somehow manages to make a living supporting his family. He's simple, humble and a character that everyone in Budbuda loves. His destiny changes when, the filmstar Sahir Khan(Shahrukh Khan) lands in Budbuda for the shooting of his film. Billu is then pestered by his children to go meet him,to whom he had once said Sahir Khan was his childhood friend. Things go out of hand when the news of Billu being the childhood friend of Sahir reaches every corner of Budbuda. Billu then refuses to accept the fact that he once knew Sahir, assuming that he wouldn't recognize their childhood friendship now. He's then mocked up by villagers for making such a fool of himself. The things leading upto him meeting Sahir Khan is for you to watch for yourself.

Billu Barber's heart and soul is Irfan Khan. He's quite stupendous in the very first commercial movie that claims to put him as the main lead. His funny, serious and emotional shades are quite perfectly done. He's bang on with his performance as always. The highlight of the movie is the acting of Lara Dutta who plays Billu's wife. This is when you actually come to know, how important the script and the character are in making an actor give his-or-her best. Lara Dutta is extremely good giving her career best in BB. As always,Screenplay and dialogues of Billu Barber are something that's a little carelessly done as compared to the previous release of Red Chillies OSO that scored almost in every department. Shahrukh Khan does his bit of acting convincingly. The actors like Rajpal Yadav and Om Puri are let down with ordinary dialogues, who still try creating humor that goes totally unnoticed. The movie lacks the energy that a typical Shahrukh Khan movie usually tends to generate. The special appearances by Deepika, Kareena and Priyanka is good but lets you forget as continue watching the movie. Though the money is spent lavishly on the sets, the film fails to deliver the expectations of the audience.
The Music of the movie is not appealing either.
Billu Barber scores an mediocre rating in every department.

I will go with 6 out of 10 for Priyadarshan's Billu Barber.

Not a must watch.
But go with no expectations and you might not be disappointed.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Find more Review's here:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Dev D : Movie Review

Well, apologies for the late review.




Dev D,is a movie that definitely is not a Devdas. And it certainly does not boast about being in the league of the previous Devdas's may it be Dilip Kumar's or Shah Rukh Khan's. Dev D, is a fresh script and the characters are superbly written. Director Anurag Kashyap, has made a movie with a simple script told in a really complex way with the casting director being absolutely on target with the casting of every charcter. Dev D is no over the moon movie, but it simply justifies the fact that you do not need big stars to make a movie look good.

Dev D's protagonist Devender Singh Aka Dev(Abhay Deol) is a spoilt brat coming from a really well off punjabi family. Dev,arrogant yet so sensible falls in love with his childhood friend Paro Aka Parminder(Mahie Gill). Unseen circumstances lead to Dev losing Paro, who goes on to marry an close family acquaintance leaving Dev to his all time companion "Alcohol". Dev goes on to realize how much he actually loved Paro and gets completely into Alcohol-Drugs and Girls. Now during this phase is when he comes across Chanda(Kalki Koechlin), a prostitue through a local pimp Chunni(Dibyendu Bhattacharya). Dev finds comfort and lot of relief as he continues to spend time with Chanda letting out all that he ever had for Paro, both fall in love. Dev leaves Chanda no sooner his conscious pricks him about Chanda being a Sex Worker. Life again seems to take Dev for a ride as circumstances put him into some serious legal tangle. The things that follow is to watch for, which gives this movie a happy ending.

Dev D, definitely is engaging.. but only in parts. The movie is slow paced which might make the audience restless during certain parts of the movie. Dev D also has the real world touch to it, recreating the DPS MMS Scandal and BMW Road Rage killings in the movie. The man who steals the show with an impeccable performance is Abhay Deol. He is awesome throughout the movie making you cling onto the movie even in the most slowest of scenes.He is definitely showing his worth as an Actor. The performance of Mahie Gill and Kalki Koechlin is to watch out for. It definitely does not feel like its their first movie. They're too good for their first movie. And as far as the other actors go, they've delivered the goods quite perfectly. Dev D, is movie that shows intimate scenes of the movie differently and boldly. Music of the movie is average,the song "Tauba Tera Jalwa" being the most liked one.

Dev D simply lacks the pace that's needed, making it an average movie at the end of the day. And am quite sure about the fact that the movie will get mixed reviews among different groups of audience apart from the Critic's. Dev D is a movie that not everyone will like after watching it, as its so far from the usual commercial cinema.
I would suggest you to go watch the movie and see for yourself.
But still for people who're in a double mind, this is not a Must Watch.

I will go with 7 out of 10, for Anurag Kashyap's Dev D.
Ans two thumbs up for the freshness and the direction of the movie.

Not a Must Watch, but i suggest you to.

Raghav
Movie Critic
Writer's Lounge

more reviews here:
www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Slumdog Millionaire : Movie Review

Awesome!
Just Awesome!
Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that goes right into the absolute must watch category. Now am not telling you this, just because it won a few international awards or anything. This movie is something that you cannot afford to miss. This movie is based on a novel Q&A written by Vikas Swarup and it quite simply justifies the fact that movies could be as good as the books. Directed by British director Danny Boyle, and Co-Directed by Loveleen Tandon, Slumdog Millionaire is the final product which couldn't be made better. This movie is so flawless that you will be absolutely spellbound once you're done watching it. The script is something that is written with caution and attention to detail, writer Simon Beaufoy has done an exceptional job with screenplay of the movie.

Slumdog Millionaire's protagonist Jamal Malik who's on the verge of winning the indian version of "Who wants to be a Millionaire", is arrested and interrogated suspecting him of Cheating. Now the movie starts off with Jamal Malik being questioned by the police. As he goes on to clear his fairness regarding every question that he had answered in the reality show is something to watch out for. Frankly, I don't want to reveal anything else in the movie. Its better you watch it for yourself. The movie revolves around Jamal Malik and his elder brother Salim Malik, and the things they go through to reach to the situation they're in, is something again to be given to the writer. Jamal Malik played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanay Hemant Cheda and Dev Patel as Youngest Jamal, Young Jamal and 20-yr Jamal respectively. The youngest Jamal being the most impressive and loved of the three. The casting is again so good, that every actor fits into in perfectly. The roles of Latika and Salim are so well written that the actors do a complete justice to the characters. The camera work is the other thing which needs to be keenly observed. Slumdog Millionaire simply scores in every department that you can think of.

How can i forget Mr.Rahman? He's the other person who adds in that soul to the movie. He's created a beautiful album with tracks that could be liked by all age groups. Latika's theme, Jai ho and O..Saya being most catchy ones.

Slumdog Millionaire is something that shouldn't be missed whatsoever.
I confess on watching the movie after downloading it from the Internet. But after watching it i realized that the effort the people behind movie is something that needs to be appreciated. So am planning to watch it again in the theatre once its released. And i would strongly suggest you all to go watch Slumdog Millionaire in the theatre only. Such movies needs to be supported and appreciated. And as far as the few things that's being criticized about SM and Danny Boyle is the fact that they depict Mumbai as a large slum and nothing else. I totally agree with them showing a little too much about Mumbai that's not completely true. But yet again, Mira Nair did the same in 1988 with Salaam Bombay. Movies on such subject needs to be shot in the right way. So as far as the pleasing the western audience by Danny Boyle goes, thats not completely true!

I simply give it a 10 on 10.

And ten thumbs up for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire.

"MUST WATCH"

It has reason for being in the IMDB top 250 movies. #34 to be precise.

www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com

Chandni Chowk to China : Movie Review

The curtains finally rose on the all hyped Chandni Chowk to China which released yesterday the 16Th January worldwide. CC2C is an movie with an sincere and desperate attempt to tickle the funny bone, but... it fails miserably. This movie Directed by Nikhil Advani goes impactless on the audience like his previous directorial venture Salaam-E-Ishq in 2005. Now at that point you can actually feel a lot better after watching Salaam-E-Ishq because of its music unlike CC2C whose music is pretty much ordinary.

CC2C's protagonist Siddhu(Akshaye Kumar) is a petty vegetable cutter at a food stall at Chandni Chowk owned by Dada(Mithun Chakraborthy) who's more like a father figure to Siddhu, who was brought up by him after being abondoned as a baby . Siddhu is innocent yet dumb,desperate to earn money and become rich, attempts some really weird things right from buying Lottery Tickets to seeking the help of astrologers and Palm readers to try change his luck. Fortunately or Unfortunately for him, he's recognized as an reincarnated Chinese warrior and taken to China to fight for the people against Hojo (Gordon Liu). And how circumstances lead to one another transforming him into a figher is something to watch out for. In this very country he comes across the twin sisters Sakhi and Suzy(Both played by Deepika Padukone) who have their own story recipe to be added into the already screwed up CC2C story dish.


2009 for Bollywood has definitely started off on a real bad note with CC2C totally disappointing the audience and not even living up to half the level of its expectations. CC2C is clearly dumb, illogical and funny is parts. What were the Sippy's Production House thinking when he approved of such a crap script from Nikhil Advani. After this movie, it really makes you wonder on the fact - did Nikhil Advani actually make KHNH. To top off such a bad movie is that "Warner Bros" are the distributors for this movie, that too first time in Bollywood. Don't think they'll come back again. For once, The promos of CC2C are far better than the full length movie. Music of the movie again going unnoticed and has a reason for it. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, extremely disappointing music which is not even close to Rock On!!.

But you cannot really take this off from Akshaye Kumar, he's extremely hilarious but only in parts. And watching only these parts of the movie, you actually feel like sitting through the complete movie. Deepika Padukone does justice to her role completely,acting out well both as Sakhi and Suzy. What can an actor or an actress probably do.. when the script itself is filled with such flaws. Can't believe Shriram Raghavan has written the screenplay of CC2C after the movie like Jhonny Gaddar which was an absolute perfection in the screenplay section.

I heard Akshaye Kumar saying in one of his interview's- "Leave your brains at home when you come watch CC2C". After watching CC2C, i seriously wished "I should have left everything at home before watching, or even probably stayed back at home totally".

I'll go with 4 out of 10 for Nikhil Advani's CC2C.
Ten Thumbs down for all the unnecessary hype.

You can let go this movie for the weekend.

Probably be satisfied reading the other movie reviews on my page.
http://raghavthecritic.blogspot.com/