Saturday, July 6, 2013

Lootera: Movie Review

Romance is in river, in snow, in trees and in air ! Just watched "Lootera" ... :)

Plot:
A slow paced light coloured romance between a fiesty rich landlords's daughter and a scheming shrewd "Lootera" which goes ahead to become a real heart-wrenching story of sacrifice and unconditional love.

Story:
Pakhi (Sonakshi) is daughter of a rich zamindar in Manikpur (WB). In comes a young handsome and well-behaved government archaeologist Varun (Ranveer) from state's archaeological department along with a request to excavate a particular plot of land in zamindar's estate where they claimed, lied some pre-historic remains. Zamindar allows Varun to start excavation work and also invites him to stay in his haveli till the time excavation gets completed. During this boring excavation activity, love was going to blossom ... Pakhi comes close to Varun and eventually both of them fall in head-over-heels for each other. Our honest and committed Varun proposes to zamindar to allow both of them to get married. Quite surprisingly zamindar  agrees to his proposal and movie seems to be ending right at interval. But this was not going to happen. Suspense element, right ? Enjoy it.
But after interval movie takes a different turn. Rather more mature and calm turn. First the setting shifts to Dulhousie and no more West Bengal. A general slow pace kicks in (exception being few sequences of thrilling chor-police chase) and movie moves into an intensely emotional realm. The intensity would pull you into their world and take you blind-folded wondering up to the climax. Sadly but peculiar taste of this movie's climax is actually common-place now and it seems it's the new in-thing in bollywood ... You would shout at the screen ... Why ??

Weaknesses:
For certain viewers, either the slow pace of movie, or the intense drama or the 1950's kind of romance can get dangerously boring. And viewers might exclaim - "Kya pakaau film thi yaar"... Not a mass entertainer for sure. May affect the business also :(

Strengths:
1. Story (Decision to adapt part of the movie from "The last leaf" was masterpiece ! O Henry Sir is a killer, anyday),
2. Ranveer (After diagonally opposite charachters in dhinchak roles like Band-B-B and Ladies Vs Ricky, this role gives him a chance to show his breadth of acting skills),
3. Sonakshi (for 1st time, I felt proud of her),
4. Direction
5. Cinematography / Background Scenes (The Johars and Chopras should learn that nice locations and backgrounds can be possible within India too)
6. Music (Rightly placed songs/tunes which add to the intensity. 10 on 10 to the background music for sure !!)

A must watch for romantic-at-heart people who can endlessly love to stare at the beauty of slow silent ripples in water.
A strict no-no for people looking for a weekend stress-buster ;-)

Stars: 4*

Chalaa Taani !
Neo.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Ghanchakkar: Movie Review

Sun Oye Ghanchakkar Babu, tere chakkar hain bekaabu, hua bheja tal ke sabu .....dana rey !!

Plot: A typical bank robbery goes into "Ghazni" mode which threatens to be taking shape of "The Usual Suspects" or "Johnny Gaddar" but dupes everyone by ending up in a brilliant question mark and that's signature saved "Ghanchakkar" ... Yes :-)

Screenplay: A slow pace session which ends up in strange yet orgasmic climax. Don't miss the climax if you ever start experiencing the foreplay :P

Dialogues: Good to start ... but very soon they get hackneyed.

Story: Sanjay (Emraan), an expert Lock-Picker, is married to fiery, fashion freak and loud-dressed punjaban Neetu (Vidya) and is leading a languid lazy metro life till he gets a call from Pandit (Rajesh Sharma) and Idris (Namit Das) to rob a bank. Fun kicks in here. Nice bank robbery sequence ensues. Post robbery the trio decide that they would divide the money after 3 months so as to let the post-robbery-police-heat settle down. Flash-forward -> Sanjay refuses to even recognise Pandit and Idris after 3 months claiming he met an accident that has caused an (Ghazni re-incarnate !) amnesia which would aggravate with time. He also claims that he doesn't know where he had kept the loot-money. Annoyed by this Pandit and Idris forcibly enter into Sanjay's home and give 7 day's ultimatum to remember everything and return back the entire loot. Fun takes a back seat and buffalo enters water here. To keep the interest in movie, the scriptwriter keeps pushing age-old or hollywood-movies-inspired-sequences including pouring in some "Bhediya Aaya , Bhediya Aaya" sequences and plunging the neck-line of Vidya's dresses. Both, in fact, would turn futile in front of a discerning audience. 
Movie goes straight into climax with hints of "Judas Kissing" at times. 
And, wo wo wo ... what a climax ... Loved It !! We, the audience, clapped and thanked Emraan for keeping the things small within a banana and a fork to tackle the last samurai :P 

Strengths: Climax, Ghanchakkar song, sequences like the bank robbery and "Ye fried rice hai ??"

Weaknesses: Slow pace in middle, length of movie, banal talks, Vidya Balan (why did she ever sign this movie??)

One time watchable.

Even though not rated an adult movie, avoid impressionable-aged-kids with you ... Vidya aunty is still in hangover of her "Dirty Picture" it seems ;-)

Stars: 3* (Don't ask for more !!)