Review of “Gori Tere Pyaar Mein”

While watching “Gori Tere Pyaar Mein” you may think you are watching two different movies separated by an interval, only the lead actors are same with same screen characters in both halves. The first half’s story is of a young architect Sriram Venkat(Imran Khan) from Bengaluru who falls in love with a north Indian social activist Dia Sharma(Kareena Kapoor Khan), but soon they realized that their motive in life is different so they broke up. In the second half the story shifts to rural India as the social activist has now shifted her base to a village in Gujrat and her ex-boyfriend goes to the village to win her heart again.

Well its quite clear that the story has nothing new to offer it can remind us of so many films like “Dilwale Dulheniya Le Jayenge”, “Maine Pyaar Kiya”, “Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya”, “Ramaiya Vastavaiya” etc. But the narrative style is refreshing in the first half at least. The way the character of Vasudha has been added in the story, is quite interesting. Vasudha (Shraddha Kapoor) is a south Indian girl whom Sriram’s parents have chosen for him. In the first half Sriram narrates his story to Vasudha and in this way audience comes to know about his relationship with Dia. The breezy romance between Sriram and Dia looks good. The marriage sequence between Sriram and Vasudha is also nice

and funny. Here all credit goes to the screenplay writers Arshad Syed and Punit Malhotra for keeping the story interesting, in spite of the fact that the story has been told on screen so many times earlier. The dialogues written by the duo are also witty and funny and go well with the multiplex audiences. But the problem starts with the second half as it goes to a more serious and dramatic way but cannot capture it properly. In the second half the story tries to highlight serious issues like corruption but it handles the issue in a childish way. In fact there was no need to be so much serious when you can win audiences heart with the fun element. The saviour of the second half is the character of Lateshbhai(Anupam Kher), the collector of the village. This character brings out the lighter moments in the seriousness of the second half.

As a director Puneet Malhotra is very much comfortable in the first half of the movie as it has quite similar setup like his first movie “I Hate Luv Stories”, but in the second half he tries to come out his comfort zone but fails to deliver. It is a good effort by him but everyone cannot make “Lagaan” in a village setup.

Acting wise, Imran Khan has played a young spoilt brat, for whom making relationships and

then breaking up them is nothing new but one day he finds his true love and then does lots ofunexpected things to get his love. Sounds familiar? Yes it is familiar as Imran has playedsuch characters in too many movies; more recently in “I Hate Luv Stories” he had portrayed almost similar character. So it can be said that after doing some experimental roles like “Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola” and “Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara”, Imran is back to his comfort zone and he has done quite a okay job.

Kareena Kapoor looks very good in both urban and rural avatar. She acted well and danced

well too (with shaking her tooh). But the only question comes here why Kareena chose to do such a movie at this stage of her career where she has nothing new to do. Is it her friendship with the producer Karan Johar or she really don’t gets exciting offers after her marriage?

And where is the chemistry between Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor? Both of them looked quite nice in their last movie together “Ek Main Aur Ek Tu”. Probably the story there was of two friends so there missing chemistry as a romantic pair was not noticed there, but in a romantic movie the

chemistry is required. Here Imran Khan has shown better chemistry with Shraddha Kapoor. There is a possibility that soon the two can be seen opposite each other as lead pairs. Not only with Shraddha Kapoor , Imran Khan looks good with Esha Gupta too in a song sequence.

Apart from the lead pair, Anupam Kher has done a wonderful job as Lateshbhai. Also the actors, who have played parents to Sriram and Dia, have provided good support.

Shraddha Kapoor is in the movie in a guest appearance but she impresses with her talent in the limited screen time she gets.

The technical team is pretty much okay. Mahesh Limaye’s cinematography is eye catching. The sets designed by Shasank Tare are good but in the second half it could have been better. You can find such a neat and clean village only if the producer is Karan Johar. Akiv Ali’s editing is okay, although the length of the film could have been a bit shorter. Background music by Salim-Suleiman goes well with the mood of the film. Choreography of the songs like “Tooh” and “Chingam Chabake” is done well by Remo D’souza.

The music by Vishal-Shekhar is already popular and it will help the movie to get a good

business in its initial days. But just like the film there is no freshness in the music too. It is just like any other Vishal-Shekhar soundtrack, in some of the songs the influence of other Vishal-Shekhar songs are pretty much clear. The lyrics are average. But hats off to the lyricist Anvita Dutt Guptan, for writing the song “Tooh”. No one had ever imagine that there can be such a song which can describe a human body part so directly that too without sounding vulgar by the smart use of Punjabi words.

Overall the movie has nothing new to offer but the same old story has been told in a refreshing way with good actors, funny moments and dialogues, though the second half is not enough interesting. If you want to see a romantic movie and have a good time with your partner in the theatre then you can go for this one, others can wait for the television premier.

Review of Bengali Movie – Ashchorjyo Prodeep

It is true that Ashcorjyo Prodeep is not a sequel to Bhooter Bhabishyat, still everyone will compare it with the later. It is just because of the fact that it is the second movie from Anik Datta as a director, after giving the successful Bhooter Bhabishyat, so that it has got so much pre-release hype. Otherwise this movie might have to wait for the word of mouth publicity after release like Bhooter Bhabishyat.

So before going to the details of Ashcorjyo Prodeep, here are the answers of the FAQ related to all that comparisons. Yes it is also a comedy, but unlike Bhooter Bhabishyat , it’s a black comedy. It is also entertaining but not in the similar way. This time also there is a revolt against modernization by demolishing the age old culture but again in a different cinematic language.

Ashcorjyo Prodeep is based on a short story by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay. It is a modern day tale of Aladin and his magic lamp. Here Aladin is Anilda or Anilabho Gupto (not Gupta), a typical middle class Bengali who wants to grow in life but not sacrificing his peace of mind. But his wife Jhumur has more aspirations with her life. She has no problem to do overtime at her work as a beautician just to maintain a status of living at par with her sister. One day Anilabho got a magic lamp and a modernized version of Genie appears to fulfil all the wishes of his master. What will be the wishes of Anilabho and will he be able to achieve that with money, that forms the rest of the story.

Making this film was not an easy task for director Anik Datta. He knows there will be the burden of expectations from all his fans as well as critics. It is tough to get success in your first movie as director but it is tougher to fulfil the expectation on the second movie when the first one is well received by both masses and classes. But it has to be admitted that with all this burden of expectations Anik Datta has done a good job as director, though it is not his best work.He had the financial liberty this time to shoot in a Limousine but may be just like the protagonist Anilabho, he too had lost his focus a little bit by getting money and fame surprisingly. Actually his direction is better when he shows the middle class lifestyle in the first half. What a perfect detailing of a typical middle class Bengali culture. The way Anilabho enjoys the adda in office, he saves money by travelling in tram while getting travel allowances of a taxi from office, he don’t hesitates to have some drink in the absence of his wife or to ask for a 2% cut on a deal which he has done for his boss. Every minute detail has been taken care very well. But in the second half the screenplay loses its focus a little bit. It seems that the director wants to show that he has got a better budget by unnecessary show off. The makeover part of Sashwata is simply not entertaining . But in the climax the movie gets back its control. At the end, it is successful to deliver the message it wanted to deliver- “Does money can buy everything or not?”

Sashwata Chatterjee is in the best phase of his career .This year this is his third film where he has been featured as the main lead. He has proved that to be the main lead you don’t need to have good looks, good body or good dancing skills rather if you are only good in acting, roles will be written for you. Here Sashwata has brought life to the character of Anilabho. His body language, his mannerism everything suits the character. The way he has played the character everyone will be able to identify with this. Similarly the other parallel lead Rajatava Datta is at par with Sashwata. Everyone will like his portrayal of a genie in a modernized version. His dialogues in his first scene are very funny. Though he appears in the movie much later but once he appears there is scope to escape from his magic.

Shreelekha Mitra has a comparatively smaller role as Jhumur,the wife of Anilabho. She is very good as the nagging wife in the first half, but in second half she has only one or two scenes. Special mention is deserved for her last scene in the movie where she has no dialogues but still she expresses a lot with her eyes. Mumtaz is playing the role of Miss Mala Mal, an aspiring model and actress of Hindi movies who is actually a Bengali. She has only one scene with dialogues and one item song. But her character is very much there throughout the whole film. Her picture is there in every possible way of print and electronic media, that is used for advertisement. Probably she had given more dates for photo shoot than for actual shooting. Her only scene where she is giving interview to promote her upcoming film is very funny. There is a dialogue where she said “I can’t reveal too much”, but she had actually revealed a lot in the movie being in the limit of censorship.  

Apart from these key players there are some cameos by Paran Bandopadhyaya, Kharaj Mukherjee, Bishwanath Bose,Arindam Shil, Sumit Samaddar and Mir. They have proved that they don’t need a longer screen time rather they can leave their impression in their one or two scene appearances.

Technically the film is very good in some aspects. The screenplay has been written quite well for such a one liner story. But there are some loop holes; there are some unnecessary subplots which have been added just to increase the length of the film. Like the scenes between Anilabho and his friend Pragyan da, who gives him lecture about some strange facts about the American presidents. But there are some really funny sequences too, like the one where Anilabho interacts with the waiter at a multi cuisine restaurant, the first meeting of Anilabho and his Genie, the scenes between Anilabho and his boss. A special mention should be given to the sequence where Anilabho is watching TV and changing TV channels, the way the director had done spoof on the popular Bengali TV channels that is amazing. It seems the director has separately shot for the few seconds video portions on different TV channels.The dialogues are very well written by Anik Datta , it gives enough scope to the audiences to laugh out loud. Unlike Bhooter Bhabishyat here are some dialogues with adult humour too. The locations are very much real and the look of the characters is also well designed. Cinematography by Aveek Mukhopadhyay is nice and simple. Editor Arghya Kamal Mitra has done efficient job.

The music by Raja Narayan Deb is in sync with the movie. Although the songs are not chart toppers, but are very much appropriate as per the demand of the script. The item song “Zyada zyada, dil mange zyada” has the appeal to be popular but the best song is “Sab kichhu badle gechhe” sung by Amit Kumar. This is a revised version of the Kishore Kumar song “Prithivi badle gechhe”, Anik Datta has added very good lyrics to the original song. It is actually a satire on the current mindless consumerism.

Overall it is a good movie with lots of humour added with some serious message too. I will advise you to go and watch the movie. Don’t try to find the lovable ghosts again rather enjoy the company of the interesting genie and his master this time.

Is RamLeela worth watching???

Almost one and half years ago when Mr Bhansali had announced Ramleela no one had much curiosity. At that time, Bhanshali had given two back to back to flops, Ranveer had not delivered brilliant performance in “Lootera” and Deepika had not given three back to back 100 cr films. On paper Ranveer and Deepika were not sounding like a sizzling pair, but the man Bhanshali had it in his mind so he took the decision to cast this unusual pair that too in the adaptation of a romantic story. Yes this time its official that Ramleela is a adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, it’s not always that Mr Bhanshali gives credit to the original inspiration (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam , Black).

Then after one and half years when the promos came out it really caught everyone’s attention, everyone came to know after Black film and Blue film (Saawariya) Mr. Bhanshali has made a multi-color film. It reminds us of “Devdas” and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” too.

So the audience enters in theaters with an expectations to see a mixture of “Romeo & Juliet”, “Devdas” and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and all that in a true Sanjay Leela Bhanshali style.

From the very opening credit song the movie takes it viewers to the world of Gujrat with the lovely folk song “Mor bani thanghat kare” but just when the credit song ends it seems you have entered in a wrong theater. it’s not a love story rather its showing an imaginary village where there is rivalry between two communities from more than 500 years, no problem we all know if it is Romeo & Juliet there must be rivalry but is this the way to show that , that every person in the village holds one or maybe more than one gun and they can start firing anytime. In fact Anurag Kashyap or Ram Gopal Verma has not shown so much gun and firing in their underworld and mafia movies. Probably this will be the first and only movie where you can see people are dancing garba holding gun and sometime firing too just to add more beat to the garba track.

We all have heard or read “Romeo & Juliet” and even if  we don’t read then at least we have seen the earlier adaptations “Kayamath Se Kyamath Tak” or recently in “Ishaqzaade”, so the basic story is known to everybody and even the climax too(there is nothing to reveal the secret its quite well known). But the main thing is how the story has been adapted by the director in his own world.

Every director has his own vision but here Mr. Bhanshali has changed the meaning of love and showed it as true lust. Ram and Leela use their lips to kiss each other more than to talk with each other; they can sing song and dance with each other and even they can kiss each other in their very first meeting. Whenever they meet they talk about their figure, their size and their sexual desires. You never feel that they are in love.

Suddenly two important people get killed from both the families in an unintentionally funny sequence and everything changes between Ram and Leela’s lives. In the second half goliyon ki rasleela dominates more than Ram Leela ki premleela and finally it goes to the predictable climax. 

The story is already known but it has been setup in Gujrat convincingly, the issue between Gujrat’s to communities has been focused in a movie for the first time though the community names have been changed as Rajari and saneda(which is actually Rabari and Jadeja).But the screenplay is not convincing enough there are too many questions which comes in audience's mind but remains unanswered till the end of the film. Some scenes are written too childishly for example the murder sequence of the brothers of Ram and Leela. 

Some extra songs also could have been easily chopped out from the film, like the old 80s fashioned song "Ishqiyaun Dhishqiyaun" and the item song featuring Priyanka Chopra. This is good as a promotional song but in the movie it has been pushed forcefully. 

Does that mean it’s not a good movie; no not like that it has lots of good points too. As a director Bhanshali’s command is visible throughout the movie. Just like his other films his signature style is visible in every frame by the look and feel.He has succeeded to make his imaginary world, as believable to the audiences. All his technical team has given him proper support too. Wasiq Khan’s sets are very much larger than life and appropriate as per the demand of the movie. Ravi Barman has done superb cinematography, not a single color has been left from his lens. Everything is colourful here even in the action sequences the villains are thrown on colourful rangoli which throws a blast of colours. There are some shots which he has shot in slow motion which looks good on screen like the sequence where Ram and Leela are falling down from their balcony to a water pool or the chase sequence between Keshar (Barkha Bisht) and Bhabani (Gulshan Devaiah). The movie would not have been so much colourful without the superb clothes designed by the two talented designers Anju Modi and Maxima Basu too. The way every characters look has been designed are very nice and shows the gujrati culture, although the dresses of the leading couple are little over the top sometimes but it suits the overall mood of the film. Sham Kaushal has got limited scope as an action director. In the name of action there is only bullet firing maximum time, but there is one sword fighting sequence featuring Ranveer Singh that has been co-ordinated very well.  Another technical area which stands out is the dialogues of the film written very well by Siddharth and Garima. The dialogues are very interesting and sometimes bring laughter too which is a refreshing change for a SLB movie. Sometimes the dialogues are a little bold but in lust leela, it is expected.

 Acting wise everyone has done fantastic job. Ranveer Singh as Ram has done a commendable job.

His effort is showing not only in his good acting also it is showing in his preparation to make the character look like the way the director had visualised it. His well chiseled body will be the talk of the town for long time. The director has not left any option to showcase his body. In a particular passionate song sequence his dhoti has been lowered more than the waistline of a Shilpa Shetty saree. Deepika Padukone is getting better day by day with every film. She has proved this year that she is not only a guarantee to box office success rather she can register her name in the list of the actresses who can act well too. While watching her as Leela it is tough to believe that the role was not written keeping her in mind and she was the third choice for this role (After Kareena and Priyanaka). In the first half she shines as a bubbly and bold carefree girl and in the second half she is more serious in a jogan

avtar and she has carried off both the parts brilliantly. Although her acting can remind of Aishwarya Rai of HDDCS and Devdas, but that is because of the vision of the director is similar again, there is nothing to blame Deepika for that. Together Deepika and Ranveer has a fire crackling chemistry.

Not only the lead pair, the supporting cast is also superb here. Supriya Pathak(Dhankor Ba) as Leela’s mother and a lady don of the community shines very well. With her convincing eyes she can emote too well. In fact she has become a parallel third lead along with Ranveer and Deepika. Richa Chaddha another fine actress has done very good job in the role of Raseela, the daughter in law of a don family, though her potential has not been totally utilized. She could have done more if she would have been given a longer screen time. Gulshan Devaiyah as Bhabani has done good job in a negative role but again his character is half baked. Abhimanyu Singh has a smaller role as Meghjibhai and he is at ease with his character as always. Sharad Kelkar a well known face of television has done good job as Kanji bhai. Another TV actress Barkha Bisht has a smaller but good role as Kehsar. Apart from this, the bribe taking police officer, Banka and the archaeologist fiance of Leela, Karsonbhai will also be remembered for their good job. The rest of the cast members are also well casted and provide able support.

Music is also another high point of the movie there is almost seven to eight songs in the movie but the songs are so nice to ear and so well pictured that it never looks boring. All credit goes to SLB again but this time as a music composer. Siddharth and Garima have penned quite good lyrics too especially the songs like “Lahoo moonh lag gaya” and “Ang laga de”.

The choreography is also expressive. The garba moves are excellent in “Nagade sang dhol baje” and “Lahoo moonh lag gaya”. Ganesh Acharya has again provided an unique signature step in the song “Ramjee ki chal dekho”. Priyanka Chopra has also shown nice dance moves in the item song. This is her best item song so far. The background music by Monty Sharma is also nice.

Overall RamLeela is a visual treat, it looks good to your eyes, it sounds nice to your ears, but it fails to touch your heart with the passion and pain of love. Even in the climax you did not feel the pain for the leading pair as they were not shown in love that way ever so that in can gain sympathy. Recently to avoid a controversy the name has been changed from “Ramleela” to “Goliyon Ki Rasleela RamLeela”, but while watching the movie you will think it should have been named like this from the beginning only as there is more Goliyan and less Premleela.

  

Will Dhoom3 be able to reach 300cr mark in Domestic market

The year will end with Dhoooooom. That is the promise from Yashraj films to all hindi movie lovers, but the question is will it be able to create dhoom at box office.When you have Amir Khan associated with a movie no one cares whether it will be able to enter in 100 crore club or not.People waiting for creating history. After all it was Amir Khan who introduces hindi movie business to 100 cr and 200cr club with Ghajini and 3 Idiots, then why can't we expect Amir will again create history by creating the new term 300cr club.

Until the release of Chennai Express the only entry in 200 cr club was 3 idiots, but Chennai Express and Krrish 3 has proved that in current bollywood industry if you have a bankable star and a good media hype then you can earn 200cr in just about 10 days no matter how good or bad your content is.Because a lot of thing has changed since the release of 3 Idiots.The movie marketing industry has seen a 360 degree change.

For example number of multiplexes has been almost twice in a number from that time that means number of shows will be increased in same ratio. Moe rover when the buzz is in favor of the movie, distributors also tries to make more advantage of the situation by increasing the ticket rates by 10-20%. Apart from that now a days it is too easy to book tickets online so even you don't have time to book tickets on weekdays you can enjoy the shows on weekend by online booking.

Coming back to Dhoom3 , apart from all these what will be the other factors that will help to make more money for the distributors and producers:

• First of all it is an Amir Khan film, which will guarantee a gigantic opening.
• Dhoom series is already a successful series which will create a high expectation from its third installment.
• Katrina Kaif is coming back on silver screen after almost one year that too in a sizzling avtar.
• Christmas is season of holiday and after getting a superb collection in first three days it will get a chance to encash a midweek holiday on 25th.
• No big movies are coming before and after two weeks of its release.

So all our eyes are on you Amir just make the beginning of a new era in the end of this year.