Movie Review: 'Paan Singh Tomar'

Just think of the last movie which while watching, you were wishing for it to never end. I had the same feeling while my eyes were firmly glued to the gripping story bundled in outstanding acting by all the characters I must say, with the special bow towards the versatile Irrfan Khan. The actor has singlehandedly taken the responsibility of pulling off the forgotten legend Paan Singh Tomar's life on his shoulders and done it immaculately well. Taking a nose-dive into the character, Irrfan opens the movie with being the notoriously known rebel Paan Singh Tomar allowing a journalist to take his interview. And while addressing to his questions, he unfolds the character from his early days of army through his becoming a national champion athlete to his turning to rebel.

For making his nation proud of him, Paan Singh joins the Indian army but his passion for running and love for food makes him change his profession and he eventually becomes a national champion in steeplechase run. Despite being a sharp shooter and having strong willingness to fight for a country, he has to end up being an athlete and not a soldier. In later years, his spat over property with his puffed-up cousin reaches to a level that along with his family he is threatened to be destroyed. He knocks the doors of the police but gets humiliated to a level that his medals and certificates are thrust out in rejection to help. But when this intensified to a level that his mother gets beaten, his son is bled by severe bashes and when the rivalry makes his family to leave his village, he has no choice to pick up the gun and go for it. He forms a pack of whoever willingly supported him and wanted to join the cause. He trains them hard and makes them capable of pack-deserving. He strengthens his power, fear and reach by getting funds by his rebellious activities such as kidnapping and makes himself ruthless enough to scare the people by his name. Finally he takes the pending revenge from his cousin who has by then turned Paan Singh–phobic.

It is an honest film made to give deserving tribute to the legend with desired seriousness infused by Tigmanshu Dhulia . Telling a serious and thought-provoking story such as this in an engaging way has truly been a successful attempt. The dialogues of the movie are catchy and it’s needless to say that when they are heard especially from the protagonist’s mouth, in his typical style, it’s a sheer joy of the moment. It is a movie which puts you straight in the rollercoaster of emotions in your comfy seat. The language throughout the film is though very much earthy, it excludes expletives and is pretty interesting.  Paan Singh’s love for running, his displayed voracity, his sharp shoots, his running-practice with horses are some of the major moments of fun.The relationship shown between Paan Singh and his wife is very beautiful which is shyly romantic as well as notably caring. It's a compelling tale of a rebel who doesn’t want to be tagged as ‘dacoit’ and when addressed as the same; he gets visibly upset and defines the difference with clear illustration. Irrfan has pushed the envelope so hard that it would become a tough nut to crack for others to come close. He has in a real sense given a true meaning to the word called ‘actor’ while putting most of his peers on to the other side of the broad category called ‘joker’.

I would strongly recommend you to go for this movie because at the end of it, it will leave you with a genuine pride for the legend himself, appreciation mainly for the actor and then for the director and lastly, anger-cum-pity for the system that turned the patriot into the rebel, tagged him as dacoit and ruined his life.

Movie Review: 'The Iron Lady'

There are many inspiring stories made in order to stir the inner soul to gear up for some appreciative work or to find the meaning of life, but this one is uniquely different. This is a movie which gives you a brief about Margaret Thatcher’s life and the bumpy political career of this all-confident and utterly-strong lady who is considered as the longest-serving British Prime Minister by far. The story is shown as the lady’s reminiscence of her gone-by years and missed moments due to her dedication to public service. I could say that while watching this movie, I could figure out Meryl Streep’s face in Margaret Thatcher rather than the other way round! She is so immensely sold to the character that especially in the few scenes of her old age, it actually makes you feel as if you’re watching Thatcher’s real video clips edited together and not a film on her. The age-showing soft wrinkles peeping out of the heavy makeup on her old face, the parallel veins trisecting the throat area, the right-skewed hair style, listening and sitting posture exactly replicate that of the Iron Lady’s. The toggling between young, mature and old age of the lady Prime Minister, a real ball of fire is especially nicely shown. The love, respect, affection and at times complaining arguments between the lady and her late husband Dennis are pretty charming and mostly touching. 
 

I enjoyed the movie in bits and pieces. Though I feel that given the script the movie was immaculately well done, the script itself had left the big room of showing the Iron Lady’s inspiring character in an impactful way. It could have included a few more scenes in order to blow the audience off with the ‘go-for-it’ feeling. I have to say this because the character of the movie, Margaret Thatcher is one of its kinds and other aspects are so fantastically in place that you feel something concrete is not emphasized to a degree which made the lady ‘The Iron Lady’. The movie sets an ultimate example of perfect characterization but lacks the necessary depth needed for that character to justify the title in a ‘wow’ way. Please go for this movie as it won’t urge you to shake things up like she did in her past but it will for sure leave you with respectful soft smile for the Iron Lady.

Movie Review: 'Money Ball'

Would you like a theory which tells you that scientific number crunching may lead you to successfully choose the professional players for any sport with highly likely chances of winning? Either you agree to this fully or partially, or you’re a Brad-struck fan then go for this movie which won’t disappoint you for sure. 
 

Brad Pitt as Billy Beane is a cool, moody coach cum key selector for the players for the Oklahoma Baseball club. The club is in a serious need of revamping for its consistent stereotyped failures or should I say, missed successes by thin margins. Billy comes across a rotund, smart-ass graduate guy named Peter Brand, working for some other club as Players’ Analyst. He gets impressed by him and then gets sold on his theory of buying runs while selecting players and eventually buys the Analyst himself to work for him. The key here is that the young guy has had made a mathematical matrix of numbers that help assessing the players’ consistency and judging players by their historical performances and this sounds not only pretty interesting and strangely undoubting as well. 

All the other members in the selection committee who’ve whitened their hair judging players over the decades for the Oklahoma team go against this insanely crazy Billy for his seemingly useless theory. On the other hand, Billy, a nerd when it comes to baseball, is a self-willed and who-gives-a-damn guy. He is so obsessed in his winning plans through this number-strategy that he hardly notices such opposition and whenever he does, he virtually thrashes the objectors with his cool grace. Unaffected by the grave opposition from all ranks of selection committee, Billy and Peter manage to sit together to reach their goal of buying the underdogs within the budget. They are busy analyzing the game to gauge the playing-patterns of the players and thereby deciding on the untapped potential to choose the underutilized and undervalued player at a cheaper rate. They not only successfully bring all of them on board despite the severe objections from others, but also are able to pull off the series of victory and break the record of all time.

I would like to make a special mention of Billy’s way of enjoying Baseball, which convincingly portrays his fierce passion with true love for the game and deep attachment for his team. The chemistry between Peter who is inspired by his boss’ uprightness and singleness and his boss is a good watch. Also, the bond between a staying-away daughter and Billy, a caring father even in his post-divorce time, is sweet enough not to take our eyes off them when they join the screen together. The movie doesn’t bore at all but it is certainly not riveting enough throughout its duration either.

Won prizes for 'Rascals' and 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'

Again, Many thanks to Television Eighteen India Ltd. for this appreciation for my reviews on 'Rascals' and 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'.

Movie Review: 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'

Whosoever may have enjoyed the movie, they must be saying thanks to the humming tunes and fresh presentation of not-so fresh concept. You will fool yourself if you go in search of any conceptual story as the movie trailer clearly warns you not to.

It’s the story of the two young birdies moving in their late twenties. The boy has spent all his years being sandwiched under the societal and professional sophistication portrayed by his cool mom Ratna Pathak-Shah and his demanding dad Boman Irani. The time for which Ratna shares the screen, you are sure to feel that she is dragged directly from the sets of Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai and so she has refused to act for any other character. And in Boman, you can see Mr. Veeru Sahastrabuddhi in his upmarket, urban avatar, this time demanding something else. Under the influence of such persona-carrying parents, the boy has been pressed so much that he imbibes the habit of passing on the pressure even to his underwears and socks before wearing. The girl on the other hand is blessed by overly chilled-out parents and has been brought up with such freedom that she can now become a successful flirt-consultant. She is seen open and vocal enough to embarrass such gullible guys like our boy and yes, she very much does. They bump into each other at psychologist’s office; then hung around and finally unwittingly get too drunk to have the knowledge that they get married. Both want separation but in process the guy falls in love with the girl and the girl who has been toying with all sorts of boys to find her love since she was 15, says no to this poor guy. The story ends with novel note of their turning into good-friends from their wedlock. The girl is happy to have an ex-husband who she thinks loves her as a friend and the boy is happy to have an ex-wife who he thinks would love him one day.

The director has tried hard not to slip into the predictable zone and keep the audience glued to the seats but still the movie toggles between pieces of predictability and a small area of unorthodox plot including climax. Imran Khan pulls off his character nicely but Kareena looks better on screen. This all-charming and bubbly Bebo manages to attract eye-balls with much ease. Contrary to my genuine doubt, she doesn’t look much older against the youngest Khan of B-town. This age-gap apparently looks bridged but if you observe closely, you can’t imagine this couple romancing intensely, you know! They were fit for the script but my imagination gets blocked if I even try to imagine them otherwise. Even the director knew the limits of their chemistry and so he has allowed them to part ways when they got unintentionally married.

Overall, a good time-pass for close to two hours, I can say. In the rare moments when you struggle to stay in your seat, they have a good number for you to stay seated. You don’t like this movie if this has breached the understandable tolerance level of two hours with the same content. It’s watchable in leisure time.

Movie Review: 'The Dirty Picture'

Let me take up the title first - If one believes that skin-show beyond the need and letting groaning button turned on while having or imitating sex is dirty, it’s certainly is a dirty picture. But, hold your horses folks, it’s not vulgar.

Detail:

The movie opens with a story of a girl named Reshma (Vidya Balan), an aspiring actress with a view why-think-twice-when-one-life, fantasizing age-old superstar Suryakant (Naseeruddin Shah) while showering. She goes on trying to be an actress believing that she has something which others don’t, but none offers her the role. Due to her persistence and confidence, she gets a break in a dancing number and she grabs the chance by both hands. In her first shot, she turns into the steamy dancing girl making the whip make way through her deep curves while leaving the audience with jaws dropped down, mouths open and eyes lustfully wide. She becomes the ultimate sex-siren on the block and gears up to set the mercury soaring with her steamy screen presence and thereby attracting a huge fan base of lechers. She gets famous as 'Silk'. This popularity puts her in a position to work with her old fantasy Suryakant, a big womanizer, self-proclaiming to have slept with half a grand babes and still shamelessly counting number in his years of religious tours. Such filthy man is born to take advantage of anyone with only x chromosomes, so just imagine the situation when he meets this bold newcomer who is more than willing to do anything for getting film projects – the warmth turns to heat and heat turns to fire. He leaves her when he realizes that she can be threat to his marriage. 

Silk on the other hand, unaffected by this, picks his younger brother and aspiring writer Ramakant (Tusshar Kapoor) but neither of them knows what they’re into and their ways are parted smoothly like none cares, including the director Milan Luthria. Now, there’s a proud director in the movie named Abraham (Emraan Hashmi) who royally hates Silk for her sleaziness as he believes in making films which hit either brain or heart and not any other part of human body in order to luring mass to the cinema hall. But his face-to-face encounter with Silk changes his ideology and he starts dancing to her silky smooth tunes of entertainment. As time passes by, due to her arrogance and audacity, Silk becomes an unwelcome pain to everyone and ignored by most including her mother which makes her shallow and lifeless. Finally, Abraham is seen realizing him falling in love with her but he gets late in stopping her from choosing her way out of this dirty world. 

Dissection:

Naseeruddin Shah and Emraan Hashmi do justice to their given roles. The song of Vidya and Emraan is totally uncalled for. It’s a bad, boring patch. Vidya is unquestionably the showstopper. Even though she proudly exhibits her pendulous fleshes which in today’s time is a mockery-material, her inviting body language with unrestrained straight talk, luscious lips-pressing and seductive eye-winking prove her unshakable self-confidence and make her click hard. 

There is a sudden character mismatch found in the letter which Silk leaves for Abraham at the end, which has her view of the world. She is, for a change and for a moment, portrayed sentimental but it doesn’t sink well or sound genuine as she only keeps on blowing the trumpet that she is ‘entertainment’ and continuously keeps on breaching her own character lows. So when people take you seriously for your way of entertainment, you can’t be the source of ‘enlightenment’ at the end to show your soft side! She comes across as a fluffy hare raring to find lion and dancing its way to his mouth to be eaten in order to be noticed by the world. So, no sympathy granted here. 

Tusshar looks as pitiable in the movie as in reality for lack of films. My sincere condolences are just for him for his real life situation than for Silk for her end. By the way, on this note, the way Abraham is attracted towards Silk despite he despised her all through the movie, is as mysterious as the need of Tusshar’s role for this movie.

Deduction:

In the dirty film industry, one aspiring actress comes, stumbles, learns, screws her life in every way and finally ends it. The Dirty Picture is a justification of why dirty pictures are made, why they work for mass audience and still why they’re not given an open welcome. It tries to portray that such movies are only embraced behind the closed doors of the house and not in public at large. But don’t apply your mind. No message is manifest unless you’re desperate to find one.

Go for this movie. It can’t belong to the best of the lot but it’s a sincerely brave attempt. It’s a total fun, especially when its super-bold one-liners with repartees only are worth your time and ticket and the foot-tapping, shoulder-jumping number ‘Ooh Lala’ with the ‘entertainment’ of 2 hours and 20 minutes becomes the big cherry on the cake!

Movie Review: 'Rascals'

If you want to take a severe revenge against someone in a good way, then gift them the tickets of Rascals. He’ll die watching, I bet. It’s a jerks-being-jokers drama.

It’s a second movie in a row which put me in an annoying confusion as to what words to choose for showing the deepest disgust. This puts Mausam in a much respectful light. The meaning of the movie’s title is much better than the feeling after facing the movie. Ajay and Sanjay are shown as filthy, characterless dogs continuously wagging their tails while sticking their tongues out, salivating in front of the hot babes throughout the movie. To attract these jerks, girls are shown in least possible clothes. The desperate duo keeps on looting innocents and takes pride in that. They even engage in a competition with each other with a view to proving who the better rascal is. Without a weightless story and hummable songs, the crap sucks even more.

The movie makes you go through a tough tolerance test. It’s a total torturous time-waste on god knows what. Save this money. Have two more sweets on coming festival or if you can’t control and dying to spend, then help the first beggar you come across with whatever money you want to. There’s nothing in the movie. The difference between being funny and being a joker is not at all there. Except for a few handful scenes, the actors are not able to carry off the comedy, mostly because the script was completed like a dumb school kid finishes his homework in the last minute. ‘Irritating’ would be the compliment and ‘Pathetic’ is the word for the movie. Beware of the ‘Rascals’.