Movie Review: 'OK Jaanu'

Woohoo! Here is a movie starring Rahman’s music in the backdrop of the young couple from Aashiqui2, old couple bearing fine acting, and other potpourri of stuff filled with Mumbai and tons of clichés. Yes, it is the music that keeps you in the theatre, happily awake and interested. Happily is underlined.

Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Tara (Shraddha Kapoor) meet accidentally at first, then unrealistically later at a wedding, and then hit it off sickeningly puerile way. The movie had lost me there. Nachos in hand kept me seated and thankfully so as the worst was over. Let’s move on. Sharing a common belief of staying far from even the word called marriage, they go the live-in route under the watchful eye of an elderly couple - their landlords – Gopi (Naseeruddin Shah) and Charu (Leela Samson). They both share a supremely sublime love with husband calling wife Baby and she calling him Papluji. Gopi uncle (that’s what our leads call him) is exceedingly caring for his wife who ungrudgingly struggles with advancing Alzheimer’s. On the one hand, Adi the video game maker and Tara the budding architect fall in love; on the other hand, the older couple unknowingly leads them out of their idea of marriage being the synonym of hell and the opposite of career. Sticking to the hackneyed thumb-rule, post interval they are bound to realize the goodness in togetherness with wedlock. They do and then proudly and publicly become fools, the tag they often ascribe to the married.

The good thing is there is no much-wallowed melodrama. And the best thing is its ending. Pun intended. You can sail through to it by occasional fresh strokes of dialogues, often cleverly stuffed with contemporary repartee, in this painfully predictable story. You will see plenty of Mumbai local, BEST, Gate way of India, and force-fitting of ‘Ok-Jaanu’ multiple times to justify the lazy title. By the way, having seen the sincerity and impeccable love from Gopi to his ailing Charu, I feel that ‘Ok Baby’ would have suited better as the title!

As for the due credits, Shraddha is truly a revelation: she looks ravishing and claims your wholehearted stare including for her acting. Aditya makes his mark as well. Let me say, they really make a fine pair. Naseer and Leela literally own their parts and command the hearts of the audience. Their chemistry is palpable and heartwarming. Last but the best thing is the might of the maestro. Whenever AR holds a mic he is gifted to churn out a goosefleshy number. In this it is the fantabulous title track, the one that has been knocking on my eardrums loudly since its launch.

The bottom line is that if you can digest a reasonable number of here-we-go-again and who-does-that moments, you won’t mind watching this. My final word is: Skippable.

Movie Review: 'Dangal'

There are interesting movies. There are inspiring movies. Then there is Dangal – a movie balancing both angles while striking right commercial chords and more importantly, without ever losing sight of the subject. Mahavir Singh and his mighty daughters steal the show and win the hearts along with winning matches. The story as everyone knows or at least can easily guess is a potent attempt, rather hugely successful I say, in the direction of changing people’s mindsets about our daughters in specific and girls in general. It is simple, predictable and despite that, a delightful watch.

An ambitious national-level wrester, Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan), has to quit wrestling to earn bread for the family, but its stinging seed of winning a gold medal for India never leaves him, showing him always at unrest. Keeping with the earlier Indian tradition he doesn’t mind fathering children in the hope of having a son to whom he can pass on his wrestling baton and train him into a gold-worthy champion.  As luck would have it, he gets blessed with, not one, not two, not even three, but four daughters. Rightfully mentioned in the movie, as a drowning man clutches a straw, Mahavir Singh clutches on to the fighting spark he sees in his elder daughters, Geeta and Babita. Both the girls have to ditch their typical girlhood, grudgingly at first and painfully later, to live up to their father’s dream. Senior Phogat leaves no stone unturned, rather no boy unturned, in converting their hesitant daughters into powerful wrestlers. In the face of the mocking patriarchal society, both shine their way to championship by flipping, swinging, and pinning the opponents to the ground.  Though they bring their father and India many proud wins internationally, the movie elaborates on the Commonwealth games of 2010 to allow the audience to sit back and rejoice Geeta’s journey to getting gold.

The cast of the movie is outstanding to say the least. From the girls playing young Geeta and Babita to two lovely actresses showing their adult versions come across with forceful gusto and solid cinematic presence. Pulling off deft back-archs to fine-rolls to leg-takedowns by wearing a grim face isn’t a kid’s play. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Zaira Wasim are simply terrific as Geeta. Sakshi Tanwar is effortless in her role of a supportive wife and mother. Aamir Khan towers above his contemporaries by nailing with a “dhaakad” performance with those extreme looks – paunchy and pecky.  And Nitesh Tiwari gets a thumbs-up for direction.

I don’t want to be a nitpicker and share what I felt were easily avoidable, fringe-looking theatrical patches towards the end for it would chip off its deserving sheen. It is sure to consume you with assorted emotions and leave you with a smile.