Movie Review: 'Student Of The Year'

I could restrict my anger and be polite if some tyro director had wasted my time like this. 

Did Karan Johar totally lose it that he kept the first half of the movie poorly imitating F-Tv with the over-abundance of thrust-upon songs? The major part of the movie shows only the contemporary college with fit and flashy boys and chicks in scanties. They sing songs, flirt around, dance and take part in a competition that is seen more challenging than getting a full scholarship from Harvard. If you go for the movie, here is your experience. A song worse than a patch starts and you step out to save yourself. After buying pop-corn or nachos to kill your time when you enter again, you would see a different song with the same jokers jumping around. I mean what the freaking hell is this? How would a title-winning guy at the last moment get time to even bother about gauging the facial expression of a person in the audience and turn into a divine soul to teach him a lesson? Spare me, dude. 

If I see from half-glass-full viewpoint then also only these bearable things emerge – two hummable songs, Alia’s screen presence and Varun Dhawan’s comparatively better performance. I could empathise with the fatty guy who during the end of the movie shows his outburst, saying ‘Student Of The Year, my ass’. He truly reflects the sentiment of the audience. To answer in the language of one of the songs, forget ishq wala love or x wala y, it was really bakwaas wala crap. Keeping my calm, if I am to summarize then the movie SOTY is really the Sucker Of The Year.

Movie Review: 'Taken 2'

He is back; back with his brains. Although he is an old-man now, he is smart as a whip. He is fearless and kickass. He is a thrashing machine for all the goons who even think of messing with his family. He is a retired CIA agent, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson). In comparison to its precursor Taken, the degree of admiration for this brave agent stays intact even though the magnitude of thrill in the movie lowers a bit. There is no  element of unpredictability in the script. The movie starts from exactly where its first part ends. The families of the Albanian kidnappers who were crushed to death by Mills in Taken take a vow of revenge. This side, Mills gains a ground to get back to his family. To re-kindle the relationship, his ex-wife okays in joining him along with their daughter in Istanbul where Mills is on his new assignment. The movie kicks in its typical shape when the vengeful team of Albanians show up to kidnap Mills and his family. It’s pointless to mention that the protagonist squeezes the lives out of all hoodlums and makes them stop missing their loved ones. However, the real Taken-moment of the movie is that edge-of-the-seat scene in which Mills calls up his daughter and astutely leads her to the location where he and his wife are kidnapped and locked up. Mills’ meticulous attention, his razor-sharp observation and jaw-dropping action stunts are the unparalleled gems that make the movie undeniably watchable. Please go for the movie to see how the combination of a protective father, a loving husband and a lethal ass-kicker looks like.

Movie Review: 'English Vinglish'

It is so pleasantly surprising to see the intact naughty spark of Hawa Hawai in Shashi’s Michael Jackson steps and Chandani’s subdued charm in Shashi’s home-making chores. The movie shows Sridevi (Shashi) as a dedicated housewife who takes care of two kids, sympathetically-caring husband and sorrow-sharer mother-in-law. She runs a small home business of catering snacks to the households along with satisfying her family needs. Appreciation for her expertise in laddoo-making gives her a big smile and family-contempt for her ignorable inability to speak fluent English reverses the same. Given the chance to help out with her niece’s wedding, she takes this scoffing-at-her-broken-English bull by its horns and joins the English class to learn the language. Shashi’s being very jubiliant for getting her identity as an ‘Entrepreneur’, her effective cross-language communication with her love-struck French classmate and her performing family duties while thrusting aside her already neglected emotions are some of the gems the movie has nicely crafted. 

There are a few scenes that demand answers from the flash-ridden society. Shashi’s constant quest of ‘respect’ from the love she gets from her family not only strikes a strong chord but compels the audience to think over. The film has bared the harm being done by the pretentious layer of perceived sophistication to the deeply rooted, strong values of traditional India. Kudos to Gauri Shinde for she could see Shashi in Sri. The continual little shudder in Sri’s voice seems just perfect for the role she had so impeccably performed. All the characters are so aptly chosen and do justice to their roles.  My claps go to  Amit Trivedi for his real zappy numbers. Everything is just perfect but if one needs to nitpick, a bit stretch in the second half is something that is not totally called for. However, Sridevi shadows the same whenever she commands the screen. It’s a good blend of comedy, courage, emotion and inspiration. Sridevi while learning English teaches Acting to her fellow actors. This is the movie with the meaning and one shouldn’t miss something really unmissable.

Prize for the Movie Review of 'Heroine'

As I just recovered from the shock that 'Heroine' so generously gave, TV18 Broadcast Ltd sent me a DVD of the movie for having done my bit towards the social service by effectively spreading the negative word and warning the people. My big thanks go to the channel.