shiraj-dakshy
Joined May 2014
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shiraj-dakshy's rating
Big Star cast and big production value do not necessarily give you a GOOD movie; I guess Bollywood directors should realize this
"Happy New Year" is another such opportunity, but somehow falls short in the overall narration
Written by Farah Khan, Mayur Puri and Althea Kaushal "Happy New Year" is your Bollywood take on "Ocean's Eleven" with the desi Bollywood tadka of Naach Gaana, Patriotism and over the top comic sequences. The story is of five losers headed by Charlie (Shahrukh Khan) who plan a heist to steal diamonds worth 300 crores , how they implement the plan and whether they are successful in the heist is what the movie is all about .
The story concept wise is brilliant but it is the screenplay which is full of loop holes and unnecessary sequences which do not add up to the overall movie experience. The first half drags, as it is solely spent to introduce the characters. The main issue in the narration is the emphasis on the Dance Competition and less screen time is spent in the planning of the heist. Though each character is defined excluding Charlie's well, but later the main characteristics are sidelined like Jag (Sonu Sood) is supposed to be deaf by one ear but this is conveniently over looked in many sequences, such is the case with other characters as well. The chemistry between Charlie and Mohini (Deepika Padukone) is missing completely. The climax looks too convenient and a bit stretched. Another issue is the 179 mins of screen time which is way too long and it could have been 30 mins short.
The dialogues are more of a spoof of previous Shahrukh Khan Movies, and there is nothing original.The dialect of both Mohini and Nandu are inconsistent. Excluding a few sequences the comic sequences falls flat and is hardly humorous.
Shahrukh Khan performs earnestly even in silly sequences, but definitely it is not his best. Abhishek Bachchan as Nandu Bhide unfortunately is a badly written character which is more of a clown without much to do. Sonu Sood as Jag is good in showing his abs but unfortunately the same could not be said for his performance. Boman Irani repeats his quintessential Parsi act as Tammy, I feel he is being repetitive and should re-invent himself. Deepika Padukone as Mohini unfortunately has nothing much to do but she is good and lights up the screen. Vivaan Shah as the hacker Rohan shows promise but his character is too one dimensional for any histrionics. Jackie Shroff as the antagonist Charan Grover looks too haggard to be a suave businessman and his act does not impress too much. Rest of the cast is also average.
Cinematography by Manush Nandan is full of glitter and gives a glamorous look. Farah Khan and Geeta Kapoor's choreography is pleasing especially "Manwa Laage" and "Main Lovely".
Farah Khan had an excellent cast and a huge production house backing her and off course a superstar like Shahrukh Khan, but she completely wasted this opportunity with a mediocre script and a narration which is full of loopholes. I think Farah should have concentrated more on originality rather than on spoof of other Bollywood movies.
The movie is neither very bad neither very good, and has nothing new to offer, in a nutshell a very average attempt .
"Happy New Year" is another such opportunity, but somehow falls short in the overall narration
Written by Farah Khan, Mayur Puri and Althea Kaushal "Happy New Year" is your Bollywood take on "Ocean's Eleven" with the desi Bollywood tadka of Naach Gaana, Patriotism and over the top comic sequences. The story is of five losers headed by Charlie (Shahrukh Khan) who plan a heist to steal diamonds worth 300 crores , how they implement the plan and whether they are successful in the heist is what the movie is all about .
The story concept wise is brilliant but it is the screenplay which is full of loop holes and unnecessary sequences which do not add up to the overall movie experience. The first half drags, as it is solely spent to introduce the characters. The main issue in the narration is the emphasis on the Dance Competition and less screen time is spent in the planning of the heist. Though each character is defined excluding Charlie's well, but later the main characteristics are sidelined like Jag (Sonu Sood) is supposed to be deaf by one ear but this is conveniently over looked in many sequences, such is the case with other characters as well. The chemistry between Charlie and Mohini (Deepika Padukone) is missing completely. The climax looks too convenient and a bit stretched. Another issue is the 179 mins of screen time which is way too long and it could have been 30 mins short.
The dialogues are more of a spoof of previous Shahrukh Khan Movies, and there is nothing original.The dialect of both Mohini and Nandu are inconsistent. Excluding a few sequences the comic sequences falls flat and is hardly humorous.
Shahrukh Khan performs earnestly even in silly sequences, but definitely it is not his best. Abhishek Bachchan as Nandu Bhide unfortunately is a badly written character which is more of a clown without much to do. Sonu Sood as Jag is good in showing his abs but unfortunately the same could not be said for his performance. Boman Irani repeats his quintessential Parsi act as Tammy, I feel he is being repetitive and should re-invent himself. Deepika Padukone as Mohini unfortunately has nothing much to do but she is good and lights up the screen. Vivaan Shah as the hacker Rohan shows promise but his character is too one dimensional for any histrionics. Jackie Shroff as the antagonist Charan Grover looks too haggard to be a suave businessman and his act does not impress too much. Rest of the cast is also average.
Cinematography by Manush Nandan is full of glitter and gives a glamorous look. Farah Khan and Geeta Kapoor's choreography is pleasing especially "Manwa Laage" and "Main Lovely".
Farah Khan had an excellent cast and a huge production house backing her and off course a superstar like Shahrukh Khan, but she completely wasted this opportunity with a mediocre script and a narration which is full of loopholes. I think Farah should have concentrated more on originality rather than on spoof of other Bollywood movies.
The movie is neither very bad neither very good, and has nothing new to offer, in a nutshell a very average attempt .
"Bang Bang" is Sidharth Anand's first foray into action, a departure from his rom coms like "Salaam Namaste", "Bachna Aai Haseeno", "Tara Ra Rum Pum" and "Anjana Anjani".
Officially it is the remake of Tom Cruise's not so impressive "Knight & Day". "Bang Bang" has a wafer thin story by Patrick O Neil about Rajveer Singh (Hrithik Roshan) a thief who steals the Kohinoor diamond from London, falls in love with a dumb damsel Harleen (Katrina Kaif) and is in search of international terrorist Omar Zafar (Danny), why, when and how is what the movie is all about
Screenplay by Sujoy Ghosh and Suresh Nair is equally unimpressive. The central character is almost like a super hero, I think the writers created an alter ego of Krish with Rajveer Nanda who jumps, leaps, uses state of art gadgets, shows his well sculpted body and kisses his damsel with passion, he is too perfect to be believable. The plot or should I say chaos is just a collage of some action sequences, car chases in international locations and songs in beautiful locations like Greece, nothing more than that. I did not expect such a half baked plot from Sujoy, it had a premise of a sleek spy thriller but the screenplay just does not pick up. Even the love story does not strike a chord, it only has some kissing sequences, and songs which pop up from nowhere. Half hour into the movie and you can predict the narration.
Dialogues by Abbas Tyrewala is amateurish and too mundane with desh bhakti punch lines like the 80's, even the dialogues could not salvage the bland script.
Performance wise Hrithik Roshan sleep walks through his portrayal and it felt that it was an extension of his previous character Krish. Katrina Kaif with her forced innocent act as Harleen Sahani the bank receptionist is irritating and she end up being an arm candy and only needs to look good. Danny has a hackneyed villainous character of Omar Zafar who is a quintessential bollywood villain, but his presence makes an impact. Pawan Malhotra is wasted as Intelligence Officer Dilawar, as his character is poorly written and half backed. Deepti Naval, Kanwaljit Singh, Jimmy shergill and Vikram Gokhale are wasted in insignificant cameos. Javed Jaffery as Hamid Gul has nothing much to do. In short a good ensemble cast is wasted in a half baked story.
The best aspect of the movie is its action by Parvez Shaikh, it is sleek and well choreographed. Choreography by Bosco Ceaser & Ahmed Khan is done well, especially the song "Tu Meri" song which showcased Hrithik's brilliant moves. Music by Vishal Shekhar is foot tapping and breezy, apt for the kind of subject, even the background score by Salim-Sulaiman is good. Another highlight of the movie is the cinematography by Vikas Sivaraman and Sunil Patel which added the glitz and style to the narration.
Sidharth Anand had everything going for him in this movie, superstar Hrithik Roshan and the beautiful Katrina Kaif, Fox star as the producer did not spare any expense in making "Bang Bang" a grand cinematic experience, but it is opportunity lost due to weak and half baked script. Even Sidharth's direction is inconsistent, he concentrated more on style and glitz and less on the content and eventually the movie falls flat.
A plot which could have been a good spy thriller, but fails miserably.....
Officially it is the remake of Tom Cruise's not so impressive "Knight & Day". "Bang Bang" has a wafer thin story by Patrick O Neil about Rajveer Singh (Hrithik Roshan) a thief who steals the Kohinoor diamond from London, falls in love with a dumb damsel Harleen (Katrina Kaif) and is in search of international terrorist Omar Zafar (Danny), why, when and how is what the movie is all about
Screenplay by Sujoy Ghosh and Suresh Nair is equally unimpressive. The central character is almost like a super hero, I think the writers created an alter ego of Krish with Rajveer Nanda who jumps, leaps, uses state of art gadgets, shows his well sculpted body and kisses his damsel with passion, he is too perfect to be believable. The plot or should I say chaos is just a collage of some action sequences, car chases in international locations and songs in beautiful locations like Greece, nothing more than that. I did not expect such a half baked plot from Sujoy, it had a premise of a sleek spy thriller but the screenplay just does not pick up. Even the love story does not strike a chord, it only has some kissing sequences, and songs which pop up from nowhere. Half hour into the movie and you can predict the narration.
Dialogues by Abbas Tyrewala is amateurish and too mundane with desh bhakti punch lines like the 80's, even the dialogues could not salvage the bland script.
Performance wise Hrithik Roshan sleep walks through his portrayal and it felt that it was an extension of his previous character Krish. Katrina Kaif with her forced innocent act as Harleen Sahani the bank receptionist is irritating and she end up being an arm candy and only needs to look good. Danny has a hackneyed villainous character of Omar Zafar who is a quintessential bollywood villain, but his presence makes an impact. Pawan Malhotra is wasted as Intelligence Officer Dilawar, as his character is poorly written and half backed. Deepti Naval, Kanwaljit Singh, Jimmy shergill and Vikram Gokhale are wasted in insignificant cameos. Javed Jaffery as Hamid Gul has nothing much to do. In short a good ensemble cast is wasted in a half baked story.
The best aspect of the movie is its action by Parvez Shaikh, it is sleek and well choreographed. Choreography by Bosco Ceaser & Ahmed Khan is done well, especially the song "Tu Meri" song which showcased Hrithik's brilliant moves. Music by Vishal Shekhar is foot tapping and breezy, apt for the kind of subject, even the background score by Salim-Sulaiman is good. Another highlight of the movie is the cinematography by Vikas Sivaraman and Sunil Patel which added the glitz and style to the narration.
Sidharth Anand had everything going for him in this movie, superstar Hrithik Roshan and the beautiful Katrina Kaif, Fox star as the producer did not spare any expense in making "Bang Bang" a grand cinematic experience, but it is opportunity lost due to weak and half baked script. Even Sidharth's direction is inconsistent, he concentrated more on style and glitz and less on the content and eventually the movie falls flat.
A plot which could have been a good spy thriller, but fails miserably.....
Vishal Bharadwaj completes his trilogy with William Shakespeare's adaptation of "Hamlet", earlier he made" Maqbool", an adaptation of Macbeth and "Omkara", an adaptation of Othello.
"Hamlet" was a difficult subject to adapt but Vishal Bharadwaj in association with Basharat Meer has adapted it beautifully. Vishal's "Hamlet" or "Haider" is set in Kashmir, year 1995, and it tells the story of Haider's (Shahid Kapoor) search for his missing father Dr Hilal Meer (Narendra Jha)who was captured by the army.
"Hamlet" had many layers to its premise and Vishal has tried to stick to the premise and interwoven those layers with élan. Each character right from Haider (Prince Hamlet) to the two Salmans (Courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) who play Haider's childhood friends who spy on Haider to the Gravediggers has been etched well. Vishal has been true to the play and the writing is so strong that you feel the pain and ethos of Haider. Haider's relationship with his mother Gazala (Queen Gertrude) has been portrayed with sensitivity and all the sequences between them are the highlight of the movie. It is Gazala's character which is the best written character in the movie, it is mysterious and unpredictable till the end. It is the second half when the narration slips a bit and slows down the pace; even the climax seems a bit overstretched. It is the 162 mins run time which is a drawback; it could have been 15 mins shorter. Dialogues by Vishal Bharadwaj is witty and at the same time with a lot of depth.
Performances by the ensemble cast are the biggest highlight of the movie. Shahid Kapoor as Haider is one of his best performances till date and you can feel the pain and anguish. In some sequences he surpasses all expectations especially the sequence at Lal Chowk, it tapped his versatility as an actor, he proves that only he could have played Prince Hamlet which is the most complex character in English literature. Tabu as Haider's mother Gazala is the best performance of the movie; she is brilliant and does justice to Vishal's writing and vision of Queen Gertrude. Kay Kay Menon as Khurram (Claudius), Haider's uncle proves again that he is an actor to watch out for; he is the most underutilized actor of Bollywood. Narendra Jha as Haider's Father (King Hamlet) Hilal Meer is the surprise element of the movie. He does an excellent job considering the strong actors in the cast, still he shines. Lalit Parimoo another brilliant but underutilized actor plays Parvez Lone (Polonius), the army chief of Kashmir, and his portrayal of this conniving character who loves his daughter is another highlight performance of the movie. His portrayal is underplayed aptly and that is the beauty of his performance. Irfan Khan (The Ghost) as Roohdar the Pakistani militant is a cameo but his portrayal makes it a memorable character of the movie. Shradha Kapoor as Arshi (Ophelia) Haider's love interest is good but her performance gets lost due to some brilliant performances by the rest of the cast. The two Salmans (Courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) Haider's childhood friends played by Sumit Kaul & Rajat Bhagat give you the comic relief but are the weakest characters written in this movie. Kulbhushan Kharbanda in a cameo as Gazala's father-in-law was a delight.
Shot entirely in Kashmir and it has been captured beautifully on celluloid by Pankaj Kumar. Dolly Ahluwalia again creates her impact through her costumes which were well researched and developed. Production Design by Subrata Chakraborthy & Amit Ray again was one of the best aspects of Haider. Music another forte of this movie by Vishal Bharadwaj in haunting, especially the Kashmiri folk inspired Bismil and the sensitive Jhelum sung by Vishal himself.
Vishal Bharadwaj again proves that he is a sensitive film maker and good with complex subjects. He succeeds in extracting some of the best performances of this year from his cast. The length and the overstretched climax make "Haider" a few notches short from being a classic.
This is definitely not an entertainer but if you want to watch a good sensitive movie (which is rare) go for it
"Hamlet" was a difficult subject to adapt but Vishal Bharadwaj in association with Basharat Meer has adapted it beautifully. Vishal's "Hamlet" or "Haider" is set in Kashmir, year 1995, and it tells the story of Haider's (Shahid Kapoor) search for his missing father Dr Hilal Meer (Narendra Jha)who was captured by the army.
"Hamlet" had many layers to its premise and Vishal has tried to stick to the premise and interwoven those layers with élan. Each character right from Haider (Prince Hamlet) to the two Salmans (Courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) who play Haider's childhood friends who spy on Haider to the Gravediggers has been etched well. Vishal has been true to the play and the writing is so strong that you feel the pain and ethos of Haider. Haider's relationship with his mother Gazala (Queen Gertrude) has been portrayed with sensitivity and all the sequences between them are the highlight of the movie. It is Gazala's character which is the best written character in the movie, it is mysterious and unpredictable till the end. It is the second half when the narration slips a bit and slows down the pace; even the climax seems a bit overstretched. It is the 162 mins run time which is a drawback; it could have been 15 mins shorter. Dialogues by Vishal Bharadwaj is witty and at the same time with a lot of depth.
Performances by the ensemble cast are the biggest highlight of the movie. Shahid Kapoor as Haider is one of his best performances till date and you can feel the pain and anguish. In some sequences he surpasses all expectations especially the sequence at Lal Chowk, it tapped his versatility as an actor, he proves that only he could have played Prince Hamlet which is the most complex character in English literature. Tabu as Haider's mother Gazala is the best performance of the movie; she is brilliant and does justice to Vishal's writing and vision of Queen Gertrude. Kay Kay Menon as Khurram (Claudius), Haider's uncle proves again that he is an actor to watch out for; he is the most underutilized actor of Bollywood. Narendra Jha as Haider's Father (King Hamlet) Hilal Meer is the surprise element of the movie. He does an excellent job considering the strong actors in the cast, still he shines. Lalit Parimoo another brilliant but underutilized actor plays Parvez Lone (Polonius), the army chief of Kashmir, and his portrayal of this conniving character who loves his daughter is another highlight performance of the movie. His portrayal is underplayed aptly and that is the beauty of his performance. Irfan Khan (The Ghost) as Roohdar the Pakistani militant is a cameo but his portrayal makes it a memorable character of the movie. Shradha Kapoor as Arshi (Ophelia) Haider's love interest is good but her performance gets lost due to some brilliant performances by the rest of the cast. The two Salmans (Courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) Haider's childhood friends played by Sumit Kaul & Rajat Bhagat give you the comic relief but are the weakest characters written in this movie. Kulbhushan Kharbanda in a cameo as Gazala's father-in-law was a delight.
Shot entirely in Kashmir and it has been captured beautifully on celluloid by Pankaj Kumar. Dolly Ahluwalia again creates her impact through her costumes which were well researched and developed. Production Design by Subrata Chakraborthy & Amit Ray again was one of the best aspects of Haider. Music another forte of this movie by Vishal Bharadwaj in haunting, especially the Kashmiri folk inspired Bismil and the sensitive Jhelum sung by Vishal himself.
Vishal Bharadwaj again proves that he is a sensitive film maker and good with complex subjects. He succeeds in extracting some of the best performances of this year from his cast. The length and the overstretched climax make "Haider" a few notches short from being a classic.
This is definitely not an entertainer but if you want to watch a good sensitive movie (which is rare) go for it