Monday 30 July 2012

Kya Vulgar Hai Hum


Film: Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum
Producer: Balaji Films
Director: Sachin Yardi
Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Neha Sharma, Sarah Jane Dias, Anupam Kher, Chunky Pandey
Duration: 2hours 18 minutes
Genre: Sex Comedy
Ratings: Average
by Bhawana Somaaya
Story
Two good-for-nothing friends, Adi (Tusshar Kapoor) and Sid (Reteish Deshmukh) share an apartment and are forever looking for ways to earn some money and failing miserably. Adi is a struggling actor who dreams of becoming a superstar in films and fantasises titles such as Adidas a la Devdaas and Ekta Tiger a la Ek Tha Tiger.
Sid is a struggling DJ who has a way of getting into trouble and who shamelessly lives off his pug Suckru, the Vicky Donor among animals.
Desperate for love and money the two run away to Goa where they meet Neha Sharma and Sara Jane Dias.
Anupam Kher a jolly old widower spends time collecting film memorabilia and later part of the film getting obsessed with pugs.
What works about the film
Nothing actually but it is the perfect dish for you if you are looking for a musical X-rated screening in public place and enjoy double meaning dialogues. The screenplay is unapologetic.
Performances
As the struggling actor , Tusshar is crazy and has you in splits with his candour and Riteish matches him scene to scene and dialogue to dialogue.
Sarah Jane is beautiful and Neha Sharma, easily the next Parineeti Chopra. 
As the old man who believes that his mother is reborn as a pug, Anupam Kher is engaging but we have seen him in better comedies in the past. Chunky Pandey as the guru who chats with deities on the broadband is annoying.
What doesn’t work
There is an over dose of vulgarity and the censors allow it. The script makes digs at people, profession and films. The director makes sure to include every possible trick to make the film work so there are beaches and bikinis, butts and boobs, gay bars, lesbian hints, sexual innuendos, expletive one –liners which often hit below the belt!
Verdict
It is a senseless, brainless, never ending film which will be patronised by college going crowd and sex hungry middle aged people.
The film will do super business all over because the ‘kool’ actors provide you entertainment, entertainment, entertainment.


The review appears as it is in Blockbuster, a newly launched trade magazine.
You can subscribe to it at sales@starblockbuster.com


Tuesday 17 July 2012

Not Intoxicating


Cocktail
Producer: Saif Ali Khan
Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty.
Genre: Romantic Comedy
by Bhawana Somaaya
Story:
Veronica (Deepika Padukone) is a free spirited girl who has made London her home and life is a party for her where the music never stops.
One day, she spots Meera (Diana Penty) bag and baggage weeping in a drug store bathroom and brings her home. They are poles apart but soon become best friends.
Gautam Kapoor is a compulsive flirt and lives without commitments. He finds a match in Veronica and moves into her apartment.
Trouble begins when Gautam’s mother Kavita Kapoor (Dimple Kapadia) lands in London unannounced and wants to confirm an alliance for her son immediately.

What works about the film:
Many things: From the opening frame there is a refreshing take to unfold a regular story in a different way. The titles drop on the screen like attractive headlines of a magazine cover and in the ensuing scenes; characters engage you in interesting, insightful conversations.
 Writers Imtiaaz and Sajid Ali present complexities of love very simply but love is never that simple.
There are some really funny lines in the film like Deepika telling a restaurant full of people “His bun is in my oven.”
Seductively shot by Anil Mehta and punctuated with extraordinary music by Pritam, all the songs are heart rending and express the anguish of various characters.
What doesn’t work:
The characters are professionals but never shown working. There is just one scene where Meera declares she has found a job as a visual designer and Deepika Padukone clicking pictures to establish that she is a photographer. Saif Khan is shown attending office but it is unclear what he does for a living.
There are no defining moments for the blossoming or the fading of relationships.
Post interval the pace and punch drop drastically.
Performances:
Debutante Diana Penty is beautiful but has a fixed expression on her face.
Saif Ali Khan has played myriad romantic roles in the past and this is certainly not his best. He is witty, charming, exasperated and earnest but that certain spark he brought to his earlier performances is missing. He does not have to reduce himself to dress as a drag and dance to ‘Sheila ki jawani…’
Deepika Padukone has the best role and sparkles as the candid, compassionate, insecure, uninhibited Veronica. She is most effective when she is reacting!
Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia as Saif’s uncle and mother bring a distinct dialect to their performances.
Director’s cut:
Homi Adajania whose Being Cyrus was a pioneering effort attempts to weave another complex tale of passion and intrigue but the intricate layers get entangled. He presents London as a character and takes you through all the colours, textures and climates of the cold city.
It travels through dingy corridors, shining night clubs, crowded streets, and shabby apartments to unobtrusively make shifts in relationships and emotions.
There is a word Meera says to Gautam in the concluding scene, ‘Focus’. I guess Adajania was lacking in focus!!
USP:
This is not a regular love triangle. Cocktail is about female bonding and more important about female gaze. Departing from Hindi movies, it’s about women who exercise choices and sustain relationships.
Verdict:
Cocktail caters to the urban 20 to 30s age bracket and will do well only in the metropolis and the multiplexes.
www.bhawanasomaaya.com
The review appears as it is in Blockbuster, a newly launched trade magazine.
You can subscribe to it at sales@starblockbuster.com

Leave your brains at home!


Bol Bachchan
Producer: ADLF Films & Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited
Director: Rohit Shetty
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Prachi Desai
by Bhawana Somaaya

Story:
Abbas Ali and his sister Sanya are fighting a property case with their relatives and the court moves the judgment in their relative’s favour.  On the advice of a well wishing uncle, the siblings move out of Delhi in search of livelihood to a small town Ranakpur.In Ranakpur through a series of co-incidences Abbas unwittingly gets embroiled in circumstances where he is forced to lie about his identity.
Employed as a supervisor by Ranakpur’s feudal lord Prithvisingh Raghuvanshi, Abbas lives in fear of being exposed but cannot muster courage to tell his plight to his volatile master.
What Works:
There is madness to the film and it is inoffensive. All characters, situations and emotions are exaggerated and there are no pretensions about it. The screenplay is a series of action and comedy items and the dialogues outrageously crazy!
There is chemistry between Ajay Devgan and Abhishek Bachchan and it is a treat to watch their well synchronized action sequences as they jump into cars and mansions breaking bones and glass doors.
Writers Sajid Farhad serve a bhelpuri concocted out of the English language and prepare scrambled eggs out of Hindi language to evoke laughter and they succeed. Music directors Himesh Reshamiya and Ajay Atul go berserk and colour to the crazy banquet.
What Doesn’t:
The film and the characters are predictable and there are no surprises in content or technique. The narrative gets rhetoric; the action sequences after Singham appear childlike andAmar Mohile’s background score breaks your eardrums. The characters take too long to confess so the climax drags unnecessarily. There is absolutely nothing to take home.
Performances:
Ajay Devgan as the large hearted, simpleton obsessed with speaking faulty English is sincere and engaging. Abhishek Bachchan cast in a sort of double role effortlessly transforms from macho Abhishek B (his name in the film) to effeminate Abbas Ali punctuating his dialogue with ‘Na dhin dhinna!’ His dance medley to entertain Prithvisingh has you in splits!! Supporting actors Neeraj Vora and Archana Puran Singh (also in double role as Zora and Madhmati) have better roles than the two heroines Asin and Prcahi Desai who are most of the time relegated to the background.
Directors Cut:
Rohit Shetty has, from his debut film, flirting with comedy and action genres. With Bol Bachchan, Shetty proves that he can and will balance all kinds of films in his kitty. His target is box-office and unabashedly combines all the ingredients of a blockbuster, as a result the script explores every issue under the sun be it urban- rural, sibling-parent, job-marriage, items-jigs, English –transgender, Hindu –Muslim, double roles and double entendre.
The opening song of the film where Amitabh Bachchan makes a guest appearance and emerges from an egg shell speaking breathlessly a la Anthony Gonsalves in Amar Akbar Anthony and his explanation of Bol Bachchcan is the USP of the film.