Movie Review: 'Secret Superstar'

Bollywood produces six categories of movies – hit, 100-crore hit, brain-dead, flop, super-flop, and Aamir Khan-touched. This one, as you know, belongs to the last and the most bankable category. Aamir - the guy is a genie who goes the unexplored path, takes those rare risks, wears a new avatar as a filmmaker, and turns the whole bundle of newness into a surefire success.

Enough praised? Hold on. There’s more. Cut straight to the movie. If you have a voice, passion, and YouTube – you are bound to be a superstar. In addition to all that in a patriarchal Indian set up, when you have an overbearing father questioning your identity and supremely supportive mother backing up the very same thing, you’re on your way to becoming a secret superstar against all odds. I think this more or less summarizes the whole plot which anyway is pretty guessable from its impressive trailer.So I am all for watching this movie. You may want to disconnect from here as next are the details why you should watch it.

Insiya, a girl of 15 from Vadodara hails from a Muslim family, who has charms as heavens’ and attitude as solid as a rock. She wants to make it big as a singer and views the world as her audience. Her mother is the sweetest motherly portrayal I have ever seen on screen but her father is a hell of a gruesome figure you would never want to meet, even accidentally. Here again is a case of destiny calling its child but doors are locked; the child gets frustrated and finally finds a window named YouTube and meets her audience as a Burkha-donning, guitar-wielding singer with a voice that sweeps them off their feet. Then what? Like greased lightning she becomes an overnight sensation, gets a break by a musician, and wins hearts. The movie could have been a bit tighter but thankfully that extra looseness doesn’t lose its soul. The real meat however lies in its star cast.

Zaira Wasim is terrific as Insiya. She is a spectacular blend of beauty, charm, talent, and maturity beyond her age. Her titular performance is an enviable depiction of a character that would give even seasoned actors run for their money. Then comes Najma, played by Meher Vij who I still fail to believe has acted and is not her real mom! She has pulled off the role effusing all the assorted emotions — from an abused wife to a sensitive daughter-in-law to a strengthening mother to a resolute individual — with impeccable sincerity. To counter them, ready to receive your hate is Insiya’s father Farookh, played by Raj Arjun who too does a brilliant job in making you grit your teeth in disgust and anger every time he shows up. It’s a sheer joy to see Aamir switching to his comic side and crack the audience up with his signature comic gestures by being Shakti Kumaarr – the yesteryear musician who is overly hungry to get his dues but still has his heart in its place. The director, Advait Chandan, makes a remarkable debut with this cracker of a movie.

You may find yourself battling tears and losing the battle a few times. I remember when the movie ended and theatre lights dawned just the next moment, many people were seen not wanting to be seen wiping their tears. Go, watch this and be wowed by the absolute craft of acting that sends a strong message home. Even the songs of the movie collectively stand as a strong supporting actor. If I am to go Shakti Kumaarr's way, I would say only this: Wadda movie! Muaah.

Movie Review: 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania'

It begins on a disturbing note with the lofty portrayal of a newborn baby boy as an ‘asset’ and baby girl as a ‘liability’. Thereafter the movie leaves no stone unturned in over emphasizing this gruesome fact of gender discrimination to the point of utter disgust and anger.

Badri the sexist son of a misogynist moneylender from Jhansi falls for Vaidehi the self-assured daughter of a hapless father who has earned all his living only to build dowries for her daughters. Both these fathers of protagonists are seen carrying oxygen cylinders to keep their hearts pumping during distressing times, mainly gifted by their children with surprise. Special mention to the father of Badri - the epitome of the crudest creature in an elderly human form – who gets furious even with the polite request from a girl’s father if she could do a job after marriage. Vaidehi is an extension of Ananya of 2 States, this time from the opposite side of the country. She chases her dream of being an air-hostess and Badri, enamoured of her, chases her for marriage. The setting is known: Parents of primitive mindset in a pathetic patriarchal society that believes in proud distribution of costly sweets for the birth of a baby boy and shameful declaration with inexpensive pedas for a baby girl; on the other side, a resolute girl transforming a lover boy from a mindlessly nodding son into the women-respecting husband.

In presenting this obvious conclusion, the movie dabbles rather clumsily between being a light romcom and a serious one, much in the way Shashank Khaitan does in being a director and a writer. This seems to have lost some deserved impact in its climax. For instance, when Badri’s father blurts repelling threats of finding out Vaidehi and hanging her or shooting her to set an example for she had run out of the wedding, one would really want a strong lesson to be given to an uncouth goon like him. But the movie bails him out easily and quickly without him having shown any guilt, remorse, or apology to anyone he had humiliated so inhumanly. I think the plot of the movie is a brave attempt but it has certainly punched below its weight. However I must say the leads carry it with conviction and charm.

Alia is a cuteness school in herself and Varun is a modern day Govinda; rather Govinda with a taste. She is an effortless stunner and simply fabulous in carrying off all emotions with grace and grit. He is an adrenaline bag, always on the move, and bang on with his acting. If there is anyone whom I have to put for a stellar side-role after Deepak Dobriyal (remember Pappi bhaiya from Tanu Weds Manu?), it would be Sahil Vaid, who nails it being Badri’s close friend.

It’s watchable for it dares putting the gut-wrenching societal frame of India of 2017 out in the open for us to shame and correct the course. The unfortunate definitions of asset and liability beg to bring their termination.

Movie Review: 'Lion'

This is a true-story flick about a little boy of five named Saroo, who gets lost from the safe shelter of his elder brother Guddu, when he can’t control over his sleep in a strange, stationary train which is destined to depart. Next morning, the horrified Saroo runs in the running train to find a way out, wails out for help, but can come out only at the Kolkata station swarmed with the sea of uncaring travellers. Unaware that his family is about a thousand miles away, unknown to the local language and locations, Saroo stands strong in the face of adversities till the time an affectionate Australian couple adopts him and gifts him a privileged life. The transformation from the godforsaken to the well-educated Saroo escapes one thing: his want for finding and getting back to his original home. Thanks to the advent of Google Earth, his subdued want for his roots gets rekindled and without surprise, the story culminates in a sublime reunion with happy tears.  

Director Garth Davis does a brilliant job. I was totally blown by the ways certain scenes are captured. The moments showing the sights of the deathly silent, deserted railway station where Saroo calls out for Guddu, the scene in which Saroo demonstrates Guddu how he can lift any weight by lifting a cycle with gritted teeth, how their mother blithely watches her kids having a bowl of milk, and how the lost Saroo enquires helplessly at the railway ticket window about his home while frequently being elbowed aside.  

Dev Patel is spot on as an adopted grownup in late twenties, constantly battling with the thoughts and whereabouts of his lost family. But the showstopper is Sunny Pawar, the younger Saroo. He is so phenomenal in his expressions that he virtually dims everything and everyone sharing a screen space with him. His breathtaking intensity is such that it makes you stop your munching midway in the theatre the moment you watch him sitting hungrily outside of the restaurant imitating a soup-relishing guy with his garbage-given spoon.

This is a movie that displays two starkly opposite images of humanity and evokes strong emotions not only of sympathy, sorrow, and happiness but also of love and gratitude. Lion is not only watchable but strictly unmissable; because it is feelable.

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.

Movie Review: 'Mohenjo Daro'

The movie has rather rotten resemblance with Bahubali from a partial plot point of view. A son of royalty (of that time!) stroked by destiny and brought up in modesty shows bravery running in his blood and is strongly drawn towards his roots. Overruling his guardians’ wish, he visits his homeland, gets a pretty girl, enjoys with her, comes back to the story, knows the history of injustice to his father, gets angry, bashes up sidekicks and goons, and resolves to bring justice. That is all about it. The only thing is – it’s done unconvincingly. Rather, boringly.

The protagonist, Sarman (Hrithik) is a bronze-coloured, brown-haired young man in the village of Amri. To show how adventure-loving he is, the first scene of the movie creates a dull hype of his heroism when he kills a crocodile with his trident, and the village goes all clapping for him. That night a one-horned animal (ek-singaa) at a river bank pops into his dream, and the next night he decides to go to Mohenjo Daro without even knowing why. He goes there to trade and predictably falls in love with the only good-looking chick named Channi (Pooja Hegde). He gets to know the evils of Maham (Kabir Bedi), challenges him, and again predictably does what a hero should do. Protect the people and destroy the devil. The movie ends with a surprisingly summarizing note. The way those Sindhu waters demolish Mohenjo Daro is quite symbolic of the movie doing the same to our hopes with similar intensity. However, there are four reasons to rejoice: Rahman’s music, a few glimpses of the debutant beauty, intermission, and the arrival of end credits.

While I admire Ashutosh Gowariker to adopt a difficult subject and put his soul into it, I can’t help share what it felt watching. Sarman looks quite kicked to see Mohenjo Daro, partly by the feeble script and therefore mostly by overacting. Hrithik’s thirst for knowing ek-singaa matches his earlier curiosity of knowing Jaadu in Koi Mil Gaya! His nimble limb movements are the only watchable thing left in his acting which too has a limited scope in this movie. Pooja Hegde is beautiful in her role that revolves around revolving around Mohenjo Daro, receiving salutes, and enjoying attention (much like that road traffic inspector in a small town). She wears a bunch of feathers on the headgear and a long fine gown stitched in a way that reveals just enough skin that, I am sure, must have worked as a generous incentive for people of Mohenjo Daro to bow down to her in guise of respect. This is because she is the daughter of a priest and at her birth some holy chap declared that she had the blessing of the mother Sindhu, the river everybody respects and swears by. Thanks to this belief, she seems to be the only girl bestowed with a designer tailor while the rest of the cast wears whatever Ashutosh could muster to give a historical touch.

Sarman emerges as the most eligible bachelor of that era. He is handsome. He knows how to control a mad horse. With his God-gifted engineering skills he designs and helps make the entire bridge of boats to save people in the midst of the horrendous flood. He is not a PMP certified but he executes the entire evacuation project with impeccable timing. With his leadership traits he delegates duties and saves himself at the very last only after ensuring the headcount. All that is fine but Channi seems to like him may be because he can dance without rehearsal and kiss without fear. Just joking. Her character barely bothers and looks lacking passion. The chemistry between the leads looks cold. Kabir Bedi’s acting involves giving his naturally crooked smile, adjusting his ridiculously funny horn-crown, and manipulating a vote of hands. Mentioning the rest would be as time-wasting as watching this movie.

Movie Review: 'Wazir'

It is rare when a movie-song possesses you more than the movie and it either keeps on playing itself inside of your mind or comes out through your humming. But there is no way stopping it. This soothing song – Tere Bin - is a delicate stream of silken, romantic lyrics voiced by sugar combo of Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. It begins as the movie begins and while ending it makes sure of taking away the smiles you had while it was on. Not because the movie is terrible, but it slips into a serious plot.

Danish Ali (Farhan Akhtar), an Anti-Terrorism Squad officer, has a happy life with his wife Ruhana (Aditi Rao Hydari) and his daughter until the daughter gets killed in an inadvertent gunfight. Danish revenges this by killing the goon responsible for his loss and gets himself suspended. Already a guilt-ridden father and a blamed and neglected husband, he gets bumped into a master chess-player, Pandit Omkarnath Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan). Danish finds an empathetic friend in Pandit who is a sharp brain with a wheelchair-bound body, appearing a wise man despite his own dilapidated life. While teaching Danish chess and life-lessons emanating from it, he lays his case of bringing justice to his daughter who he firmly thinks was murdered by a politician. Danish buys into his theory after a gentle probe. He promises to save him when Pandit gets life-threatening warnings from Wazir (Neil Nitin Mukesh), the hired toughie of a politician. Danish takes this to his heart a bit too much as a personal challenge. He wears a fanatic resolve and leaves Ruhana uninformed who has barely forgiven him under Pandit’s wisdom. May be he fears that given his track record, there is no chance in hell she would allow him to prove himself a hero. He then goes hunting for a politician for his chess-buddy’s justice and protection. The obvious gets thrown up as a surprise, elaborated liberally to ensure the audience gets it, but trust me, it is tiring, at least in some stretches towards the end.

The performances of the leads are impeccable and hold the movie together despite their characters are forced by the fragile script, especially in the second half. Farhan is fantastic as a failed father, Aditi is good in her quiet role of a heartsick mother. Bachchan is as good as his character in the game. It pains me even to think of the necessity of roping in John Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh. The movie seems to have been made to bring out suspense, I gather. If you ask me whether to watch this or not - my ultimate reaction will be that of the politician in the movie when he is asked about Wazir! - Don’t know what to say. But when I picture those sincere faces of Farhan and Bachchan, who put their best to make the movie really work, I would say, go watch it once, for them.