SKTKS Review: Entertaining and Engaging!

'Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety' is this week's release and has 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' cast of Nushrat Bharucha, Kartik Aaryan, Sunny Singh in the leads and revolves around an 'upgraded' idea that marriages in India are not only between 2 families but also best friends.

                               

Kartik Aaryan as the saviour Sonu is the rightful show stealer. His accent, panache and his chemistry with Sunny Singh aka Titu is excellent and better than Titu's with his fiance Sweety played by Nushrat Bharucha. She plays her part well which is more or less an 'upgrade' from the PKP series. The man in question, Sunny Singh aka Titu, gives an honest performance. His performance could've been better. Alok Nath as Ghasite, Virender Saxena as Lalu and Ishita Sharma as Pihu are excellent beyond words. Their comic timings are brilliant and ensure that you run out of breath due to laughter.

                

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Scripted and directed by Luv Ranjan, SKTKS is breezy. His writing coupled with dialogues make for an entertaining watch. The only drawback here is that the director runs out of ideas to carry forward the story post interval due to which the plot seems to be repetitive. But the dialogues keep you engaged and entertain you despite a repetitive script. Like a lead character mentions, " Too Good to be True waala scene hai, Kuch Toh Gadbad hai!", this line sums up it all. The music is excellent and 'Chote Chote Peg' and 'Tera Yaar Hoon' are personal favorites.

                                       

With everything said, SKTKS is engaging, sexist yet funny and should be your watch if you looking some fun. The background of a Punjabi wedding only makes the movie more colorful and enjoyable to watch. I rate the movie with 3.5 stars! Go watch it for pure fun.

                                        

Aiyaary Review: This 'Aiyaary' of the makers did not suit audience!

Aiyaary means 'Treachery'. 'A Wednesday' director Neeraj Pandey helms this venture his shapeshifting has cost him a well-intentioned film named  'Aiyaary' and he, Siddharth Malhotra and a sub-plotted story are responsible for it.

                         

                               

How can a director after working with actors like Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubatti, Taapsee Pannu resolve to work with Siddharth Malhotra as the lead protagonist? He is such an expressionless actor that he fails to justice to Major Jai Bakshi.The only plus point he has is that he looks like a soldier. He also 'Lae Dooba' his chemistry with Rakul Preet aka Sonia, who practically had no role in the movie. It was only Manoj Bajpayee, Kumud Mishra and Naseeruddin Shah out of the ensemble cast who pulled this movie. Seasoned actors like Adil Hussain, Anupam Kher, Pooja Chopra, Vikram Gokhale have merely reduced caricatures and have been wasted.

                                   

It is hard to believe that the same person who directed 'A Wednesday', 'Baby', 'Special 26', has directed this movie. A Very Well Intentioned Story is let down by subplots, certain unnecessary scenes, choppy editing and an overloud background score but manages to deliver its message due to an uplifting second half after a sluggish first half. The movie is unnecessarily long and stretched. The climax is impressive and manages to leave a mark in an otherwise average movie.

                                     

'Aiyaary' is a movie that delivers its message after a bumpy ride of 157 minutes. I am going with 2.5 stars for the movie. Had Neeraj Pandey substituted Siddharth Malhotra, 'Aiyaary' could've been saved from the problem it is!Another 0.5 stars to the movie for its amazing message! 3 stars in total! With God's grace the movie didn't clash with Padman/Padmaavat else it would have been thrashed badly but it won't make much of difference. Lifetime should wrap under 40-45 crores!

                                       

P.S. I've been liberal in rating it 3 stars! But 'Aiyaary' should only be watched for its message!

Padman Review: Ye Superhero Pagla Hai! Period.

Talking about Taboo topics are finally coming in fashion to Bollywood! Padman focuses on the life of a social activist Arunachalam who invented low-cost sanitary napkins for women. The movie does deliver its message but sadly misses the emotional rooting that could have been possible.

                              

As depicted in this poster, Radhika Apte leads the cast as Gayatri, Lakshmi's wife. Her emotions, acting are all on point. Akshay Kumar as Lakshmi is delightful to watch but sometimes misses the skin of his character.  The rest of the cast do an outstanding role in their parts. With such amazing performances, there was Sonam Kapoor's performance as Pari that was pathetic and bashed up the movie in the acting department. Her performance can easily go down as One of the worst performances of the year already. Even her costume, make-up was equally disappointing as her performance.

                                                 

                                            

Director R.Balki does a fine job behind the camera. The movie suffers in the second half due to lazy writing and 'forced' sub-plots ruin it. The dialogues(except a few) are cringeworthy and this 150-minute movie could have been better if there was some tighter editing but DOP stands out. The city of Maheshwar was captured very well and the music by Amit Trivedi was disappointing. Perhaps "Hu Ba Hu" was the only song that I could take back. The technicalities made Padman a flawed film but certainly enjoyable because of its overall feel.

                                         

With everything said and done, Padman is a movie that cannot bring about a change but has the potential to start a conversation about menstrual health. I am rating the movie 3.5 stars perhaps due to the direction, performances, DOP and the subject. An enjoyable affair! Can be your watch this weekend. The collection of this movie will stand about 85-90 crores lifetime. Above Average!

                                        

P.S. The movie inspires you to do something better with your life.

  

Padmaavat Review: Brilliant is an Understatement!

After a delay, Padmaavat finally hit the theatres and it is a typical signature of Sanjay Leela Bhansali! The man creates magic behind the camera. Padmaavat is SLB's  3rd best movie to date behind the Bachchan-Mukherjee starrer 'Black' and 'Bajirao Mastani'. 'Padmaavat' is a story of honour, valour, and obsession.

                

Ranveer Singh is the man of the moment. He displays the vivid layers of Alauddin Khilji to perfection. He is menacing, amusing and cynical and no one apart from him could have played this role. He should be ready for his award speeches now! Shahidas Maharawal Ratan Singh is impressive. He carries the honour, valour required for a Rajput king with perfection but his character lacks depth! 'Padmavati' Deepika essays brilliantly, especially through her eyes. She literally lives the role of 'Padmavati'. Aditi Hydari as Meherunnisa is stunning and Jim Sarbh as Malik Gafur is fun, wicked and amazing to watch. The rest of the cast does an amazing job in their respective roles.

                                         

Sanjay Leela Bhansali behind the camera guarantees some breathtaking, stunning, royal and magnificent visuals.The cinematography is brilliant, the screenplay is taut, the background score and the music by SLB are superb! SLB captures all the actors brilliantly! The war scenes are brilliantly shot and the editing, dialogues, and lyrics are pitch perfect! The movie has been fictionized but only a bit towards the climax to make it look dramatic. The historical facts are somewhat kept intact by the movie. 

                                         

In spite of a running time of 163 minutes, 'Padmaavat' keeps you interested in the 2 parallel stories of Maharawal Ratan Singh-Padmavati and Alauddin Khiljiin the first half and the brilliant interaction of the three leads in the second half! The movie is surely the amazing start to 2018 and it gets 3.75 stars! Go watch it! Beautifully made and acted!

                                        

                                        

P.S. 'Padmaavat' needs to be watched by Karni Sena before protesting! The movie, in fact, upholds the Rajput Valor.

                

                                                                  

The Best of Bollywood and Hollywood 2017.

Overall 2017 has been a disappointing year for cinema, both in terms of content and revenue. There have been 214 releases out of which there have been only 20 successes (semi hit and above) and hence Bollywood has been poorer compared to 2016. But amidst a lot of poor movies, there was some content-driven cinema which really made it tough for me to choose a Bollywood No.1! And surprisingly, this time I do not have a Bollywood favorite but a Hollywood favorite. So here are my Top 10 Bollywood and Top 5 Hollywood movies.

10. Meri Pyaari Bindu & Tumhari Sulu: Nuanced Performances, Storytelling, and foot tapping Music.
                                       

9. Qarib Qarib Singlle: Performances, Dialogues, Direction.
                                                                

8. Mom: Performances and Direction.
                                                                

7. Hindi Medium: Performances, Dialogues, Music and Saba Qamar.
                                                               

6. Trapped: Gritty Storytelling, Layered Story, and Rajkummar Rao.
                                                               

5. Bareilly Ki Barfi and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan: Performances, Simplicity, Music, Dialogues, and Direction.
                                                     

 4. Newton: Performances, Nuances of Social Issues, Direction. [The biggest flaw because of which Newton didn't feature in Top 3 was because it's pace, which tremendously lowered its impact.]

3. Secret Superstar: Emotional Quotient, Performances, water-tight screenplay, lyrics, climax, and direction.
                                                         

2. Lipstick Under My Burkha: Performances, Story, Direction, Cinematography, Screenplay, and Aahana Kumra.
                                                       

Bareilly Ki Barfi : Performances, Simplicity, Music, Dialogues, and Direction.
                                                    
So these were my pick for the Best of Bollywood 2017. And it is pretty evident that 2017 belonged to women as the Top 3 were either acted or directed by women and most films featuring here were dominated by females.

HOLLYWOOD:

5.The Greatest Showman:
                                                                  
4. Dunkirk:
                                                                   
3. Lady Bird:
                                                                       
2. Get Out & Breathe:
                                           
1. Wonder: 2017's BEST MOVIE.
                                                              

Thus 2017 offered a mixed bag when it came to the cinema but it the last month, it hit a six with Wonder. Brilliantly enacted, Excellently adapted and outstandingly executed!

Hope 2018 offers better films!