vicky-bahl

Firstly, I am a neutral movie buff and I am not giving this movie 8/10 only as it is an Anurag Kashyap film. I am a big fan of Kashyap all the way from Gulal to Dev D and appreciate that he makes movies from his heart and not for box office earnings.

Now coming to Bombay Velvet.

The movie: A gangster film with some bit of inspiration from Fight Club, Slumdog Millionaire and likes of various gangster movies such as Scarface made in in Hollywood. However, let down by force fitting all of this in one 2.5 hour story - didn't go well, but didn't go bad either. The movie has colors of old school Bombay, it gets the characters right - Ranbir is great as Johnny and Anushka's role couldn't possibly have been performed better by any one else (only if Madhuri still acted). And now the punch - Kay Kay Menon and Karan Johar both fit in perfectly as the good cop and mastermind criminal lobbyist. The movie has blood, filth, emotions and music in perfect combination.

Overall, a must watch for off-beat cult movie fans for sure. You will take some scenes with you. And you will start appreciating this when you either see it again, or start thinking about it a bit more deeper than "just another film".

8/10 from me for the effort overall. 6/10 in story 9/10 in casting 10/10 in direction

Watch it with open mind and preferably without reading random reviews and talking to people who don't understand cinema critically.

Let me start by saying that this movie is great - but you need to be a fan of Mr. Scorsese's cinema to enjoy something like this for 3 hours. The difference between a Scorsese movie and just another good movie is that Scorsese won't stop short of depicting the real truth (no matter how visual or vocal it might be) on the big screen.

This is in-your-face cinema for people who love to be very close to "what really happened". I believe that Mr. Leonardo DiCaprio was a great choice to play Jordan Belfort, a common man who is hungry for success and money is the drug that functions best for his system. Mr. Scorsese's gets the best out of DiCaprio and he excels in his role, all the way from amazing scenes where he is giving a speech to make his firms employees feel motivated, to the scenes where too many drugs are in his system while he needs to get behind the wheel. It looks so real that I felt that he needs to actually have drugs in his system to act that way.

Apart from DiCaprio, Margot Robbie looks stunning as she plays the role of Belfort's wife.

Don't think twice before going to this one is you are a fan of Mr. Scorsese's cinema such as Goodfellas. Avoid it if you don;t want to hear the F word like a million times and watch sexually explicit content - but in short - that's what makes it real.

9/10 without a doubt!

Chakravyuh - 6/10

Chakravyuh is a good attempt by Prakash Jha to give us something like a Gangaajal and Apharan but what he forgets is that this is far more touchy topic for a majority of Indians than topics discussed in Gangaajal and Apharan. A topic such as kidnapping rackets can be accompanied by masala songs and a great looking police woman, but when you discuss topics such as Naxal Movement, Communist Ideology and show your protagonist (Abhay Deol) reading Marxian literature, I'm sorry but you need to be a lot less commercial.

In summary, Chakravyuh is a masala movie (as Arjun Rampal agrees in an interview too). It has item songs, a hot policewoman and random jokes. It is an 'entertainer' - for that I might give it 7/10 - but as far as the real message is concerned - to show what Naxal movement is all about and what is the state of our tribes and also the nexus between government, police and the corporate's - I am sorry but it is a disappointment.

Please watch it for it's entertainment, I wasted my time watching it alone as I was expecting this to be showcasing something that is close to my heart, unfortunately it does not.