Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - Drama

I love this Bradley Cooper guy big time since his “Hangover” days and what a fantastic movie cum opportunity to prove his worth with this one. Totally awesome movie with a damn good message – what a treat it was with Rob De Niro and Anupam Kher sharing screen space in one hell of a movie which gets half a dozen nominations at Academy. I am sure it will definitely pick up a couple if not for leads – now that’s something which is debatable as per me as I did like Jennifer Lawrence but couldn’t love it for some reasons. It’s a simple story of Pat (Bradley) suffering from Bipolar disorder, how his life gets screwed and how he works it out for himself, his family and friend, succeeding in the end is told in a damn good way. It was actually heartening to see how two people cut off by the sane society come together to rescue each other from their problems is totally rocking stuff. And the way Bradley and Jennifer played their parts was too good. Robert De Niro will always remain my favorite – he does again what he does in a way no one else can come any closer – the good part was even Anupam Kher gets quite a decent footage and is a very likeable character that remains etched in your memory. Dunno why Wiki is calling it a comedy / drama – I will certainly call it a drama cum thriller to say the least. not to be missed by anyone – it’s a must watch for all as it gives a damn good message – we should all learn in today’s time. Hope it gets its due at the Academy.

The Sessions (2012) - Drama in real life

If you have seen Javier Bardem’s “The Sea Inside” and loved it – you are definitely going to love this one too – big time. This was like taking “The Sea Inside” one step ahead – story of a poet who is paralyzed from neck down, hires a Sex Surrogate to lose his virginity. What happens next is a very detailed but heart touching account of the same, one that will make you smile, laugh, think and a lot of other emotions too.

The best part about the whole movie was the sessions between Mark O Brien (John Hawkes) the patient with Cherly (Helen Hunt) the sex surrogate, even his sessions with Father Brendan (William Macy) were too good – they will certainly rock you off your chair laughing.

PS: Being an American movie this has full frontal nudity as well as a couple of sex scenes – all done in good taste – yet it may be a little too much for some. So beware when and with whom you watch this with.

Les Miserables (2012) - Drama / Musical

Unfortunately Musicals were never my cup of tea – barring a very few movies – the best I saw and loved totally was “Mamma Mia” – ABBA being one of my favorite groups – no doubt it had that magic on me. Saw it so many times, loving it even more with every viewing. This unfortunately never worked for me, even after having a couple of my favorite actors like Hugh Jackman (I haven’t forgiven the X Men series makers for the fiasco in the last part), Russell Crowe, Anne Hathway (Cause of her even wifey saw it for like half hour) and my all time favorite comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. I had to see it because of them and the nomination at Academy but I never had a connect with the story or any of the characters and even the soundtrack wasn’t too pleasing – my personal opinion. No offence to anyone who got a better idea of the movie but for me it was quite a tedious watch. Dunno how academy is going to treat the nominations and I will be totally surprised if Hugh Jackman gets it – I so much want him to win it anyways. Give it a try – who knows it may appeal you. Yesterday I realized why my history teacher was cursing me as I gave no attention to her subject – I guess if I had given it a slight attention, who knows, this movie could have made more sense to me.

Ajab Gazabb Love (2012) - Comedy

The day Jacky Bhagnani’s first movie “Faltu” came – it made me realize that another “Uday Chopra” was born that day. All his movies will have a tag line in big bold silver letters saying “My Dad is Vashu Bhagnani and we can buy any Director to make a movie for me”. Imagine for this movie they actually hired Sanjay Gadhvi – the same guy who gave us fantastic movies like “Dhoom” and “Dhoom 2” and what a disaster this one turns out to be. More than entertainment it shocks you with its cast, story, songs, handling and almost everything associated with the movie is total crap. Imagine this for the starters – his royal entry into the movie right after all the characters are self introduced – he walks in showing his 8 packs with 4 Ferrari’s parked on each side with 4 bikini babes each side dancing in front of them – WOW – what else one wants with a dad like that. Still, the freaking movie and story goes nowhere – he and the rest of the idiots in the movie (Will call them that for signing a movie with him in lead) try to put their best foot forward to make this work yet – it was destined to sink without a trace and I guess that’s exactly what happened to this one. Still, his next will be ready for a royal release in couple of months, if I am not wrong. 

Nidhi Subbaiah

The Movie: Same old story of a girl who hates rich guys, so our Rich dude who drives a range rover becomes a poor guy, immediately she falls in love and wants to meet his poor family, he ends up renting a house in some slum to impress her, she wants to meet his family, finally everyone in his family including the super rich dad agrees. His super rich dad becomes a banana seller and learns a lesson himself, starts donating 30% of his income for poor people. In the meantime comes the twist in the tale as we could predict it – in the form of a Rich brother who has a twin – again they too are super rich like rich guys dad and all. A couple of turns and twists and some idiotic comic scenes later they all happily agree and let them marry. WOW – what a story and what a class movie from one of the best Directors who has lost the plot entirely. I mean, movies like this prove it again and again that with money you can definitely hire talented people but again they end up making a joke of themselves to regret later that why did they even sign in the very first place. I am sure talented actors like Arjun Rampal, Arshad Warsi, Darshan Zariwala, over the top Kirron Kher – they all are wasted big time in such a crappy movie. The South Indian hottie who I guess makes a Hindi movie debut won’t even find a mention in my short review. I seriously hope they learn a lesson and this guy goes in production side or else will end up being a loser like Yash Chopra’s son Uday Chopra.

Jacky, Director Sanjay Gadhvi and DC Avanti

The Car: Another person who will be highly disappointed with the failure of this movie will be the acclaimed Indian Car (Re) Designer Dilip Chhabria better known as DC. Its very unfortunate that he chose this movie to launch his acclaimed car DC Avanti – the one in the Picture. As the story in the movie goes the rich guy’s son designs a “Dream Car” and they call it “DC”. I don’t know why but they did use almost all the cars that one can name off in the movie barring their own car which he designs so passionately and is very keen on making it a grand success. A first of its own kinds sports car made in India for Indians. Again its Mr. Bhagnani’s money that plays the game here but never works, the comedy doesn’t makes you laugh, cinematography at best I will call it average as they don’t take us anywhere we haven’t gone in past. Even with so many cars on board – hired for the movie – there isn’t one that you will remember as soon as you are done with the movie – let alone the car that they design as it suddenly vanishes from the story and never comes back. I so much looked forward to see if they are actually going to drive it in the end may be. Naah! They don’t do that, I guess DC just allowed them to show it on screen and never allowed them to touch it or start it – let alone driving it. The fate of the actual car is yet to be seen – hope it doesn’t bites the dust like the movie does.

Bhoot Returns (2012) - Horror

Ram Gopal Varma has screwed his reputation so badly that I seriously couldn’t convince any of my friends to accompany me to see this one on big screen. Unfortunately had to settle for home viewing and was lucky to get a good print this early. This was a very interesting movie which did keep me on the edge of my favorite chair totally hooked to the story with so many shocking moments and with some unintentionally funny moments too. I sincerely found it to be quite entertaining and I am sure on 3D – it would be too good a watch – worth all the money you spend on a horror movie. I am one of those guys who get scared quite easily and in that sense it wasn’t a proper horror movie but was at least slightly better than an average thriller. It was fantastic to see JD Chakravarthy (Satya) and Manisha Koirala finally in a movie – my wife almost didn’t recognize the guy. Although it had the same beaten to death story of a family moving into a new house whose tenants had gone missing, I really wondered why would somebody take up a house of that sorts but again – they had to make a movie out of it so its ok. Same stuff of kid seeing the spirit first, parents not agreeing, finally after some scary moments they run out for their life and the ghost remains in the house for yet another part. It’s certainly a good 2 stars from me for Ram Gopal Varma and a good half for his damn good camera angles which work in this one big time. 

Director and Entire Cast

I really wonder at times that why they don’t try to scare the audience in some new ways. And always use the beaten to death formula in Indian movies by making same old sounds from the doors, windows and even the devil sounds similar in all our movies. I expected something new ground breaking stuff from RGV’s factory of movie making this time and was sorely disappointed. The day I heard he was making a horror that too in 3D – I got all excited but unfortunately even the reviews were not that good for this one. Finally after watching it myself today I don’t regret anymore that I didn’t see this one on big screen as I am sure now – it wouldn’t have scared me any more than it did it at home. It leaves so much to be desired from the movie – I was all prepared to get scared but the acclaimed Director fails his fans again. He is famous for his weird camera angles – he used them in almost all of his earlier movies and when it came to directing a scary movie – it was all done with a straight camera – missed those typical RGV shots so much in this one barring a very few from ceiling fan, under the table, wash basin, grass root level etc, but they didn’t scare me one bit. This will definitely be called a disappointing job yet again from all RGV standards. Looking forward to his upcoming movie on terrorist attack on Mumbai – shooting is in full swing – hope he makes a good come back with that one.