Ghanchakkar (2013) - Comedy / Suspense

After making two superb critically acclaimed movies as well as commercially successful too – Rajkumar Gupta tried his hand on Comedy / Suspense – and Bravo! What an attempt. Unfortunately this movie came and went without making any headlines – I guess I was busy that week hence missed it. Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan anyways was a weird combination to be in one movie that too in lead. But I am glad we saw this today finally and it actually turned out to be an above average comedy cum suspense – right till the very last scene it was very tuff to guess the culprit, although it’s a bit too long as per today’s movie making standards and should’ve been edited by good 20-25 minutes for sure. Still it works perfectly like a movie which keeps the audience hooked to the narrative. The casting is superb too with Emraan as good for nothing husband who loses his memory right after a successful bank robbery and has no idea where he has hidden the money. Vidya Balan as his fashion disaster nagging wife – I guess they tried to do a unsuccessful image makeover for her and failed big time. Their partner in crime Pandit (Superb Rajesh Sharma) and Idris (Namit Das) were too good. What all they try to bring his memory and money back is simply hilarious. If only it was edited a litter better – it would’ve made a perfect comedy cum suspense drama movie. I will still call it a decent attempt as we enjoyed it thoroughly – it surely gets a good 2.5/5 from me and can be called a nice one time watch for sure, not at all a bad movie.

Bajatey Raho (2013) - Comedy

Another amateurish attempt at comedy which falls flat on its face – shockingly it can be called a bad copy of superb movie “Khosla Ka Ghosla” – I am sure the Director was inspired by that movie to make this crap. I read couple of reviews which praised the performance of Dolly Ahluwalia and I totally felt otherwise – she was average as Mummyji and was totally out of place and uncomfortable as the business tycoon she plays – Oh My God! The only good part about this movie was sincere performance of Tushaar Kapoor – we so much liked his role and I must say – his was the best character – had most of laugh out loud moments were because of him only and the high point of the movie is that - Mata Ki Chowki song – based on Desiboyz “Subah Hone Na Dey” – that is something you shouldn’t miss on youtube, its hilarious. The movie starts very well but loses the steam in flat 20 minutes and goes nowhere from there – talents like Ranveer Shorey, Vinay Pathak and even Ravi Kissen are totally wasted to an extent, I thought it will still be an average movie but found it below it. I was actually forced to pick up my cell in between and check mails / whatsapp / facebook whatever I could do in between. Even the item number by some foreign chick was totally unwanted. Guess I should have missed it hence my rating will be 1/5.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) - Political Thriller

As this movie released – I thought it’s going to be another movie on a Muslim in US before and after the 9/11 attacks with Mira Nair’s name attached to it – became another turn off to not to see the same old beaten to death stories – how wrong I was – to judge it just like that without even watching it. As I finally picked it today – I was totally shocked by the way it turns out to be – it’s an amazing movie – first is the way the writer / she has handled the subject, second – the superb cast and finally the fantastic ending, totally unbelievable at least for those who haven’t read or have any idea about the book. Not every Muslim who returned to his country after getting abused by Americans after 9/11 turned into a terrorist and took a revenge for something they shouldn’t have done with the innocent Muslims. Now that’s something different and totally unexpected. Riz Ahmed does full justice as the protagonist and his is another heart breaking story, Fantastic is the way he is supported by two talented guys Liev Shrieber as CIA Agent and Kiefer Sutherland as his boss. Others in cast too are well known figures like Kate Hudson as his girl friend, Om Puri and Shabana Azmi as his parents, Adil Hussain as Al Quaeda Chief in Pakistan, Imad Shah as his colleague in Lahore University. It’s predictable from the very start but it works big time because of the solid casting – we did develop a connect with the protagonists, understand their dilemma. This became another movie based on a book that I am now keen on reading the book. It also gives a quite an insight into today’s Pakistan – if the author has to be believed – they aren’t that backward as we think they are, I was a little shocked to see that too. Even the background music and a couple of songs in the background add a different feel to it. I will definitely rate it a good 3/5 and will highly recommend it to all. If nothing else – it does works like a great thriller.

Oblivion (2013) - Science Fiction

Another so called “Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction” movie – in other words I will call it another disaster movie from Hollywood where the world has ended long back and aliens are still trying to extract what remains on earth with the help of a handful of idiot clones (read Tom Cruise, his wife and colleague) – I guess Hollywood has certainly run out of ideas and that’s all they could think of. Thanks God for making me miss this insane movie on big screen – still I had to make do with a 720p print of the same since wifey is a big big Tom Cruise fan – who walked out of the movie half way and asked me next day if it was any fun? The worst part of this movie is the name “Morgan Freeman” attached to it with precisely four and a half line that he says and some stupid expression on his face at the last scene of movie before he sacrifices his life for the betterment of human race saying “Wtf was I doing in this movie anyways?”. Imagine this – the world has ended and they (Whoever they were) still extracting some stuff out of earth, Tom Cruise who is about to go to some other planet to live his remaining life lives on a tower above New York City, wears a NYC Cap, his tower has a transparent swimming pool – wow – where is the water coming from? Don’t ask – he even has a house somewhere on earth – nobody obviously knows nothing about it and believe me – it’s a lakeside house with one fish in the pond, a working record player and a great collection of long play records too – oh yeah! Before I forget – he even saved a pair of Ray Ban’s too ;) Purpose of his life? to retrieve his lost memory and get united with his lost wife, finish those who are extracting earth’s remains and stop that cloning machine from creating a million clones of himself. All you get to see is again – destroyed NYC with one bridge here and statue of liberty there – a stadium in ruins after 2017 world cup and a couple of scenes shot on the terrace of “Empire State Building” in ruins. That’s such a laugh out loud stuff – I tell you. I will call it one of the worst made on the subject and hope that they do not come out with a sequel of any sort, give it a miss if you haven’t seen it yet and if you did – let me know if you liked it. No ratings.

White House Down (2013) - Action

After watching “Olympus Has Fallen” last week – I actually gave myself a couple of days before picking up this one as they are back to back same stuff (I thought) but this one turns out to be a better movie and as comparisons are inevitable anyways. Fortunately I like Gerard Butler who starred the previous one but I actually love Jamie Foxx more I guess hence this one was a superb time pass with some real good one liners and comic scenes. White House Down actually talks a lot about American politics, White House and gives a lot of information what I expected in Olympus Has Fallen but that one turns out to be a non stop action movie right from the first till the very last frame. This one has limited action but a lot happening all around – it actually gives quite a good guided tour of White House to the audience and that guy who plays the guide was very funny – it’s all run of the mill stuff from an American Movie standards – same old thing of getting hold of their nuclear devices and planning to blow off the enemies, asking some million dollars and an airplane to escape. But the way it all is done is something I liked – Channing Tatum in lead as a DC Cop going for an interview to the White House for Secret Service position takes his daughter along for a guided tour. His interview is over right at the start when he finds his X girl friend (Maggie Gyllenhal) is in charge of the same– how he qualifies for the same in next couple of hours is something you should watch the movie for – by saving the President (Jamie Foxx). How ironical it is that Jamie Foxx played the character of a slave (Django Unchained) in his last movie and what he becomes next is - President of United States. Their comic timing is excellent and they share a damn good chemistry too. Again the movie is a little too long – I guess they should have trimmed it by another 15-20 minutes easily but again that’s the point why it works for me. I will definitely give it a good 3/5 and will call it a superb time pass.