Winners of First Bengali Filmfare Awards

Best Film - Chander Pahar
Best Director - Shiboprasad Mukhopadhyay and Nandita Roy (Alik Sukh)
Best Actress - Konkona Sen Sharma (Goynaar Baksho)
Best Actor - Ritwick Chakraborty (Shobdo)
 
Best Supporting Actor - Indraneil Sengupta (Mishwar Rawhoshyo)
Best Supporting Actress - Moushumi Chatterjee (Goynaar Baksho)
Best Debut - Sohini Sarkar (Rupkatha Noy and Phoring)
Best Debut (Director) - Indranil Roychowdhury (Phoring)

Best Actor Male (Critics) Soumitro Chatterjee (Rupkatha Noy)
Best Actor Female (Critics) - Rituparna Sengupta (Alikh Sukh)
Best Film (Critics) - Shobdo & Rupkatha Noy.

Best Background Score : Neel Adhikari (Tasher Desh) & Prabuddha Banerjee (Phoring)
Best Choreography : Baba Yadav (Jhinkunakur Nakkunakur) (Boss)
Best Cinematography : Soumik Haldar(Meghe Daka Tara) and Indraneil Mukherjee (Phoring)
Best Production design : Tanmoy Chakroborty (Goynaar Baksho)
Best Sound Design : Anirban Sengupta and Dipankar Chaki (Shabdo)

Best Lyrics: Anindya Chattopadhyay (Raat jaaye - Alik Sukh)
Best Music Director: Jeet Ganguli (Boss)
Best Playback Singer Female: Anwesha Dutta Gupta (Sara Din Aar Sara Raat - Rupkatha Noy)
Best Playback Singer Male: Arijit Singh (Mon maajhi re - Boss)

Special Award - Prosenjit Chatterjee
Lifetime Achievement - The Late Suchitra Sen and Madhabi Mukherjee

The nominees for the 1st Filmfare Awards for Bengali Cinema

The nominees for the 1^st Filmfare Awards.

Filmfare Award for Best Film – Bengali	Filmfare Award for Best Director – Bengali
Alik Sukh Chander Pahar Mishawr Rawhoshyo Phoring Shobdo	Aparna Sen - Goynar Baksho Indranil Roychowdhury - Phoring Kamaleshwar Mukherjee - Chander Pahar Kaushik Ganguly - Shobdo Shibprasad Mukhopadhyay and Nandita Roy - Alik Sukh
Filmfare Award for Best Actor Male – Bengali	Filmfare Award for Best Actor Female – Bengali
Dev - Chander Pahar Jeet - Boss Prosenjit Chatterjee - Mishawr Rawhoshyo Ritwick Chakraborty - Shobdo Saswata Chatterjee - Meghe Dhakha Tara	Ananya Chatterjee - Meghe Dhakha Tara Arpita Chatterjee - Satyanweshi Konkona Sen Sharma - Goynar Baksho Rituparna Sengupta - Alik Sukh Sohini Sarkar - Phoring
Filmfare Award for Best Actor Supporting Role Male – Bengali	Filmfare Award for Best Actor Supporting Role Female – Bengali
Abir Chatterjee - Meghe Dhakha Tara Indraneil Sengupta - Mishawr Rawhoshyo Kaushik Ganguly - Kangal Malsat Saswata Chatterjee - Goynar Baksho Paran Bandopadhyay - Proloy	Locket Chatterjee - Nayika Sangbad Moushumi Chatterjee - Goynar Baksho Sreelekha Mitra - Ashchorjyo Prodeep Swastika Mukherjee - Maach Mishti & More Raima Sen - Maach Mishti & More
Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Bengali	Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist – Bengali
Debojyoti Mishra - Meghe Dhaka Tara Jeet Gannguli - Rangbaaz Jeet Gannguli - Boss Indraadip Das Gupta - Hawa Bodol Neel Dutt - Maach Mishti & More	Anindya Chatterjee - "Raat jaaye" from Alik Sukh Prosen - "Din khon mapa aache" from Hawa Bodol Sugato Guha - "Ami akash khola" from Aborto Srijato - "Balir shohor" from Mishawr Rawhoshyo Srijit Mukherji - "Tumi ebar" from Maach Mishti & More
Filmfare Award for Best Singer Male – Bengali	Filmfare Award for Best Singer Female – Bengali
Anindya Chatterjee - "Raat jaaye" from Alik Sukh Anupam Roy - "Istofa dilam" from Nayika Sangbad Arijit Singh - "Mon maajhi re" from Boss Arijit Singh - "Din khon mapa aachhe" from Hawa Bodol Arijit Singh - "Ki kore toke bolbo" from Rangbaaz	Anwesha Datta Gupta - "Sara din aar sara raat" from Rupkatha Noy Somlata Acharyya - "Tumi ebar" from Maach Mishti & More Anwesha Datta Gupta - "Roshni elo" from Proloy Shreya Ghoshal - "Balir shohor" from Mishawr Rawhoshyo Ujjaini Mukherjee - "Ami Akash khola" from Aborto

Review of Highway

Imtiaz Ali is the master to show unconventional romance which is not love at first sight but a gradually bonded relationship between two people. Highway too is the story about two persons as different as chalk and cheese and how they discover each other and gets attached with each other.

It is a story of a young girl Veera Tripathy who is the daughter of a socially and politically powerful rich and famous person. Just a day before her marriage, Veera got kidnapped by a gang of robbers lead by Mahabir Bhati(Randeep Hooda) at a petrol pump while she was there out on a long drive with her fiance. Mahabir kidnapped Veera just to take her as a hostage to escape from the crime scene but soon he realized the real identity of Veera and also understood what risk he had taken kidnapping a girl from such a powerful family. But still he did not surrender to the situation and decided to take ransom from Veera's father and sell her to any flesh market. To hide her from police he started a journey with Veera and his aide Aadoo (Durgesh Kumar) on a truck from Delhi to Rajasthan to Punjab to Himachal to Kashmir. during this journey Veera discovers that Mahabir is not the kind of harmful person what he looks from outside rather he is soft from inside and later she develops a soft corner for Mahabir. Not only that she finds an ultimate freedom in this journey for which she was longing for throughout her whole life. She becomes so close to Mahabir that she even shares the dark secret of her childhood with him. Mahabir who is also a victim of disturbed childhood becomes sympathetic to Veera. But can this sympathy and attachment can turned into a full fledged love ? Is it possible for a girl like Veera to settle down with a guy like Mahabir who has a background of three murder charges? This questions have been answered in the climax.

The story is clearly about Stockholm syndrome where the kidnapped person develops sympathy for kidnapper but this plot has been given a fresh twist with the issue of security of woman in our society. But this story could have been told even without the incident of kidnapping. Veera and Mahabir could have meet in any other situation too then it would have looked more convincing. As the way Veera gets friendly with her kidnapper's in just few days time that really looks unconvincing. If we left this flaw then the screenplay is very nice and engaging. It could have been turned into a monotonous journey of two people but there are some lighter moments in between which keeps the audiences interest level intact. For example the sequence where all of a sudden Veera start dancing to the tunes of an English song in the middle of a highway or her baby-talking to Mahabir when he reveals his softer side. But towards the climax the story seems too stretched as after a point when the lead protagonists reach to the beautiful valleys of Kashmir the story becomes a bit stagnant. From that point nothing much happened to the story for a considerable amount of time which could have been shortened. Although it is pretty much expected that what could have been the destiny of such a relationship but still some optimistic audiences can feel unhappy with the ending.

As a director Imtiaz Ali is brilliant. Like his earlier movies here too he has created such a realistic characters with them anyone can identify. He has an eye for every detailing about each characters body language to their costumes , even the characters who have one or two scene appearances will leave an impact on the audience. The different state's names have never been told in the movie but still you will be able to identify the location as the places has been shown with such perfect detailing. From the opening sequence where just some footage of a big fat Indian wedding preparations have been shown , it has been proved that how perfectionist Imtiaz Ali is as a director.

There are only two lead protagonists in this movie and both of them have acted so well that it looks that they were the best available choice for their corresponding roles. Alia Bhatt is just two films old but the way she has given life to the character of Veera that it can be definitely said that it is one of the best performances done by any actress in Hindi movies.
Just watch Alia Bhatt in the scene where she is telling Mahabir about dark secret of her childhood , you can feel the pain in her eyes.
While Veera is bubbly talkative full of life on the other hand Mahabir is serious , less talking.

And Randeep Hooda has done full justice to the character of Mahabir Bhati. Mahabir is tough character he can slap Veera , he can give angry look but at the same time he is protective and careful about Veera too. Randeep Hooda has very few dialogues and most of the time he has to express through his eyes only and he never disappoints. 
Among the rest of the cast no one is a popular actor but every one looks perfect as per their role and gives a good support and the one who stands out is Durgesh Kumar as Aadoo , Mahabir's aide on the truck journey. Here it should be mentioned that the credit goes to the casting director Mukesh Chhabra for selecting actors who look and act perfectly in the supporting roles.

Technically the movie is brilliant.  Anil Mehta's camera work is just mind blowing . The scenic beauty of northern India has never been showcased with such a magical way. Apart from that the way he has shoot the wedding preparation sequence in the beginning and the incidents showing the police investigation after the interval with shaking images which gives it a kind of handy-cam shooting feel looks very realistic. Resul Pukoutty's sound design is brilliant. Aarati Bajaj's editing is fair enough. The production design by Acropolis and the costumes by Akki Narual are perfect and shows the effect of the research which has been done about the different culture of the different states of northern India.

The eye catching locations have been truly complemented by the haunting melodies of A.R. Rehman. All of the songs have been used in background and in spite of the fact that not all of the songs are chartbusters , every song sounds perfect in the movie. There is no doubt that the winner among all the tracks is "Ali Ali " and "Mahi Ve" but rest of the songs are also perfect for the situations in the movie.

At one point of the movie Veera tells Mahabir that she dose not want go back to the point from where she had started the journey and she neither want to reach to the destination but she just want to enjoy every moment of the journey. Just like Veera the audience will feel the same. So don't think about the climax just enjoy the movie, a journey of girl from bondage to freedom and you will surely love it.

Review of Bengali Movie Obhishopto Nighty

At one point, in this movie ,a character says "Bengali movies were doing very well showing extra marital affairs and relationship tales then what was the requirement to make such a movie", yes it is true so far adult certified Bengali films were only meant to be an extra marital affair story or a complicated story about human relationships but probably this is the first time that any filmmaker has tried his hands on an out an out adult comedy in Bengali.
But the question is whether the filmmaker succeeded in his bold experiment or not and the answer is yes he is successful but partially. Of course it is bold in its approach but the adult contents are only in concept there is not such bold scenes which used to be there in other adult Bengali movies and the comedy is also limited to a certain section of audiences only. This is made for selective audiences only not for masses and the makers are very well aware of their audiences, so they never tried to go cross the limit to add double meaning dialogues or  cheap vulgar scenes.

The story revolves around a nighty, a cursed nighty. In the 80's there was a bar singer Monica (Paoli Dam) who fall in love with a rich brat Raja (Indraneil Sengupta). It was a true love from her end but Raja cheated her and marry someone else. Monica committed suicide for this incident but her soul remains trapped in that pink nighty which Raja had gifted him and her soul keeps roaming in search of true love in the form of the cursed nighty. The nighty keeps going on  from hand to hand from a conservative family to a newly married couple to a struggling actress to a well known singer to a woman who knows black magic but unfortunately it finds only lust not true love from anyone. 

Director Birsa Dasgupta has tried a very fresh approach to tell this story, it has been shown that a panel of censor board members are watching the movie and giving their expert comments and suggestion. In this way he has criticized his own movie as well as he has made a satirical attack on the censor board and the representatives of so called well behaved hoigh class society members like politicians , businessman , social activists etc.

The screenplay written by Debaloy Bhattacharya works well in the first half but in the second half the comedy takes a backseat as just like the cursed nighty the story also starts searching for true love between an aspiring actress Apsara (Tanushree) and a trainee film journalist Aparesh Lahiri (Parambrato Chatterjee). There are too many subplots and too many characters so none of the characters get enough screen time to be developed properly.
As a result lots of character can not leave any impact on the story as well as on the audiences. There are some portions which can be avoided like a dream sequence where a housewife (Locket Chatterjee) is dreaming about her sexual desires with an animated duck in a heaven kind of place. The newly married couple episode featuring real life husband wife Rahul and Priyanaka could have been avoided as it serves no purpose.The cursed nighty is there in their story whatever happened to them is not because of the nighty so it is no where related to the main story.
Another confusion is that the concept of a film within a film is not strictly followed always, one person from the censor board member panel, Parimal Dutta (Neel Mukherjee) along with his family members ,is involved in the film which they are reviewing .

There are some interesting moment too like the one where a housewife played by Locket Chatterjee makes out with a dudhwala or the Mahabharat inspired gambling sequence between two producers at a film party or the situation where a Tagore song artist talks with a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore. The discussion among the censor board members are also hilarious.

Among the crowd of characters there are some characters who have been successful to stand out and make an impact like Mir and Sumit Samaddar as the lecher producers RSJ and Banchharam respectively, Locket Chatterjee as a sexually deprived housewife,Labani Sarkar as a Tagore song artiste Bonolakkhi (which is very much inspired from renowned singer Swagata Lakkhi). The censor board panel members like Abhijit Guha as a psychiatrist, Sudeshna Roy as a social activist, Supriyo Datta as Fire Brigade minister and Paran Bandopadhyay as a senior theater artist have done good job too. Singer Anindya Bose has made an attention grabbing appearance for few minutes as an orchestra singer at a filmy party.
Unfortunately the lead protagonists who have been given more screen time can not utilize

the opportunity because of the lack of freshness in their characters. The characters of a trainee journalist and an aspiring actress played by Parambrato Chatterjee and Tanushree respectively are too cliche that they does not make any special impact on the audiences. Paoli Dam and Indraneil Sengupta are just okay. Debaloy Bhattacharya's portrayal of a gay magazine editor Madhu is also too much over the top.

As a director Birsa Dasgupta has got much more public attention this time than his earlier two movies but he needs to focus more on his character development. But there are some fresh approach which he has used like the way he has made fun of censor board regulation like disclaimer regarding smoking or the use of animals in movie or the guest appearance of a superstar at the climax where the superstar himself says its a guest appearance. In fact the ending which indicates of its sequel is also very funy and innovative.Hope to see a better control over screenplay and characters from him in future.

The technical team has done good job, the dialogues written by Debaloy Bhattacharya are good enough to bring laughter, Soumik Halder's camerawork have created the much required drama for the movie  but the editing by Bodhaditya Banerjee could have been better.

There is not enough scope of music in the movie  but no doubt music composer Indraadip Dasgupta has scored very nice music specially the two songs "Roddur" and "Saadher Lighty"."Roddur" works very well in the background for the romantic track between Aparesh and Apsara. But the funny song "Saadher Lighty " has not been used properly in the movie. It comes in an appropriate situation but its picturization looks very bizarre. The director could have use it just in background in the movie and made a promotional video of the song featuring the whole cast to show it in the end credits or it could have been used as an item song featuring some renowned face but unfortunately the song has been picturized with some unknown artistes doing some weird dance steps which has been choreographed without paying any attention. But the wordings of the song is very witty and funny which goes very well with situation.

Overall it is a movie made with a fresh approach which will provide you some ROFL moments but don't expect more from it. It is just a time-pass movie which is good for one time watch. Yes you heard it right just one time just like the wordings on the posters of this film "Ek Piece i jotheshto noy ki? ( Isn't one piece of the nighty is enough?)" and if you think you want more than one piece then wait for its sequel "Obhishapto Pajama" which may come in future.

Nominations for IIFA Awards( for 2013)

Best Film
Aditya Chopra - Dhoom 3
Karan Johar - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Kishore Lulla & Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela
Rakesh Roshan - Krrish 3
Ronnie Screwvala & Siddharth Roy Kapoor - Kai Po Che
Ronnie Screwvala,Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Gauri Khan & Karim Morani - Chennai Express
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures & Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Director
Abhishek Kapoor - Kai Po Che
Rakesh Roshan - Krrish 3
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Rohit Shetty - Chennai Express
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela

Performance in a Leading Role (Male) 
Farhan Akhtar - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Hrithik Roshan - Krrish 3
Ranbir Kapoor - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Ranveer Singh - Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela
Shahrukh Khan - Chennai Express
Sushant Singh Rajput - Kai Po Che

Perfomance in a Leading Role (Female) 
Deepika Padukone - Chennai Express
Deepika Padukone - Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela
Deepika Padukone - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Nimrat Kaur - The Lunchbox
Shraddha Kapoor - Aashiqui 2
Sonakshi Sinha – Lootera

Performance in a Supporting Role (Male) 
Aditya Roy Kapoor - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Anupam Kher - Special 26
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - The Lunchbox
Pawan Malhotra - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Saurabh Shukla - Jolly LLB

Performance in a Supporting Role (Female) 
Divya Dutta - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Kalki Koechlin - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Kangana Ranaut - Krrish 3
Richa Chadda - Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela
Shruti Hassan - D Day
Swara Bhaskar – Raanjhanaa

Performance in a Comic Role
Arshad Warsi - Jolly LLB
Riteish Deshmukh - Grand Masti
Varun Sharma – Fukrey

Performance in a Negative Role
Rishi Kapoor - D-Day
Rishi Kapoor – Aurangzeb
Supriya Pathak - Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela
Vivek Oberoi - Krrish 3

Music Direction
Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari,Jeet Ganguly - Aashiqui 2
Pritam - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Shankaar - Ehsaan – Loy - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Story
Prasoon Joshi - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Pubali Chaudhuri, Abhishek Kapoor & Chetan Bhagat - Kai Po Che
Ritesh Batra - The Lunchbox

Lyrics
Mithoon - Tum Hi Ho - Aashiqui 2
Prasoon Joshi - O Rangrez - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Sandeep Nath - Sunn Raha Hai - Aashiqui 2

Playback Singer (Male) 
Ankit Tiwari - Sunn Rahai Hai - Aashiqui 2
Arijit Singh - Tum Hi Ho - Aashiqui 2
Siddharth Mahadevan – Zinda - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Playback Singer (Female) 
Bhoomi Trivedi - Ram Chahe Leela - Goliyon Ki Rasleela – Ramleela
Monali Thakur - Sawaar Loon – Lootera
Shreya Ghoshal - Sunn Raha Hai - Aashiqui 2
Shreya Ghoshal - O Rangrez - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Review of Gunday

"Gunday" is a movie which celebrates the nostalgia of old 70's and 80's movies where there were childhood buddies , friendship , betrayal , love , song, dance, action, emotion, drama dialoguebaazi all these packed in one movie. It never tries to make mockery of the old 70's formula rather it showcased the trademark 70's story telling style with confidence.

The story is about two friends Bikram ( Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) , the two friends  united by fate at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Their fight for survival forced them to move to Calcutta where they started their life as small time coal thieves and later became the coal mafia and uncrowned king of Calcutta's black market industry. Then enters a sexy cabaret dancer Nandita (Priyanka Chopra) with whom both of them fall in love. At the same time another person makes entry to their life to make it more complicated and he is ACP Satyajit Sarkar (Irrfan Khan) who has been assigned the responsibility to nab them and clean up Calcutta. Stayajit knows the strategy to control Bikram and Bala by attacking on their biggest strength,their friendship.But the two are not bothered about the strategy of Satyajit rather they are more interested about the response from Nandita about their romantic proposal to her. But all of a sudden something unwanted happened with their life which makes them each other's biggest enemies. Will they reunite again ? Who will get the love of Nandita? Will Satyajit become successful to make them surrender? that questions have been answered through the rest of story.

The screenplay never tries to be too smart rather it blindly follows the tested and tried old formulas to proceed with the almost predictable story.  There are so many visible references from 70's blockbusters like "Deewar" and "Kaala Patthar". But still it is engaging for the masala movie viewers. The romantic track between the three leads has been handled too well with appropriate fun. The gent's toilet sequence where Bikram and Bala watch Nandita for the first time is very humorous. There is a twist in the tale towards the climax but it is very much predictable from much earlier. The only problem with the screenplay is its pace. Its true that the movies used to be much longer in the 70's but considering the fact that the film has been made for the audiences in 2014 its length could have been reduced specially when after a point nothing much is happening in the story in the second half. There is one song "Jiya" featuring Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra which could have been easily edited out.

As a director Ali Abbas Zafar has made a good movie for his target audiences. After making a rom-com in his directorial debut Ali Abbas has taken complete 360 degree turn and made a truly masala movie on a really large scale. He should be given credit for the realistic presentation of the refugee camps and the aftermath of Indo-Pak war in the opening few minutes of the movie. Ali Abbas is good at masala movies but he has the potential to make realistic movie too.

The leading pair of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor have shown perfect bromance as the childhood buddies who can die for each other. Their real life chemistry has been translated on screen very well. The way both of them have portrayed their characters it shows how much they have enjoyed the 70's and 80's movies through their growing up age. Both of them have done the action sequences with ease but when it comes to emote Ranveer Singh leads by an edge over Arjun Kapoor. Arjun does well in the serious sequences but he needs to be more comfortable with comedy. On the other hand Ranveer shines well to show all his emotions whether it is comedy or romance or emotion. 

Priyanka Chopra has played the character of a dancer and she has managed to dance really well in her cabaret number. As per the demand of her character she looks sexy and glamorous in her low back blouses. She has to show more skin in the first half and in the second half she has more opportunity to do some serious acting and she never disapoints. She does really well in the scene where she has to confront Arjun Kapoor, in the second half.


Irrfan Khan's role has been mentioned as special appearance in the opening credits. Truly his appearance is always special no matter how much screen time he has. It may not be considered as one of his career best performance but he is good as usual. His dialogues will surely get applaud.

Saurabh Shukla is a very fine actor but he has been wasted in  a non significant role. Pankaj Tripathi and Manu Rishi makes there presence felt with their superb performances in their two scene appearances as Lateef and Usmaan who appears in the beginning sequence where Bikram and Bala were kids.

The technical team has done a commendable job to give the film a periodic look and feel. But here it needs to be mentioned the periodic aura has been created considering it as a commercial film only don't try to look for 100% perfection like a realistic periodic film. The sets have been created by Rajat Poddar and it looks authentic. The costumes designed by Subarna Roy Choudhury may not have perfect detailing but it will grab attention and looks nice. The action sequences are very well choreographed by Sham Kaushal and the hand to hand combats have a mass appeal. The action sequences which truly stands out are the introductory sequence of the two leading men where they rob a train loaded with coal, the chase sequence during a Durga Puja festival just after the interval and of course the final shootout sequence at a coal mine.The choreography done by Bosco-Ceaser is excellent in two songs "Assalaam E Ishqum" and "Tune Maari Entriyaan". The dialogues written by Ali Abbas Zafar and Sanjay Masoom could have been better as there are not much punchlines which will be with you even after the movie ends ,like the 70's movies. Cinematographer Aseem Mishra has given us visual treat with colors. His camerawork is very eye catching. The blackness of the coal mines and the multi colored Durga puja festivals have been shot very well. Only the problem with his cinematography is too much use of slow motion sequences which looks repetitive after a point.The editing by Rameshwar S Bhagat is good. The background score by Julius Packiam is very effective and creates the dramatic mood for the film.

Music director Sohail Sen has composed very nice songs which goes well with the mood of the film. Surely "Tune Maari Entriyaan" is the winner among all the songs. It has already became a major hit and surely have an impact on the pre-release buzz created for the movie. Among the rest of the songs "Assalaam - E - Ishqum", "Jashn - E - Ishka" and "Saiyaan" have been used appropriately. The rest of the songs are okay.

Overall "Gunday" is a kind of movie which provides nothing new in terms of story and screenplay. It has tried to recreate the 70's formula and almost succeeded too in this task. If you are a fan of those old 70's formula films then you will definitely like it. When maximum of the film makers are trying to make money at box office making dumb south Indian remakes, Director  Ali Abbas Zafar and producer Aditya Chopra has reminded that masala films were much better and more intelligent in the 70's so its better to remake them than the current south Indian films.

Review of Hasee Toh Phasee

Yes it is another rom-com from Dharma production  but what makes it different from other romantic comedies is the fresh approach to tell the story and its solid lead pair.

The story is about a guy Nikhil (Siddharth Malhotra) and a girl Meeta (Parineeti Chopra), both of them are the misfits in their family from their childhood.
Nikhil and Meeta meet first time in a marriage ceremony where Nikhil helps Meeta to run away from her house without knowing that she is running from her house robbing a huge amount of money to peruse her dreams to become a scientist. After seven years Meeta comes back to India to meet her father when her elder sister Karishma (Adah Sharma) is about to marry Nikhil. Karishma do not want Meeta to meet her family members during the marriage so she gives the responsibility to Nikhil to take care of Meeta and hide her from her family members. During this period Nikhil and Meeta develops fondness for each other and finally it creates complications for Nikhil that whom he should choose as his life partner among the two sisters Karishma and Meeta.

The story is really cliche and we have seen such story in films like "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan" and "Sorry Bhai", but the factor which works in favor of this gheesa peeta story is its fresh approach to proceed with the story using some really refreshing moments and very innovative characters. All credit goes to the screenplay writer Harshavardhan Kulkarni. The story could have been easily turned into a typical love triangle happening in the backdrop of a big fat wedding but the screenplay writer has chosen to walk in a different path by giving more preference to the fresh humor than the typical sentimental emotions. There are some really engaging moments which will make you lough out loud such as the trip to Bhulaswer for saree shopping where a solid confusion is created for the twin grandmothers or the situation where a funny investigation takes place about a missing necklace making satirical references to popular TV show CID or the situation where Nikhil goes to meet his would be father in law to discuss his wedding plans in the middle of night. There is a solid emotional content too in the form of a father daughter relationship between Meeta and her father but thankfully the track never goes too much over dramatic. The emotional scene between Meeta and her father when they meet after seven years will surely bring tears to the audiences eyes. With all this good qualities there are some flaws too in the script top of that is the too much cliched climax involving a running away groom going to meet her girlfriend at the airport. Then there are some unnecessary songs forced in the second half like the "Punjabi Wedding Song" which serves no purpose to move the story forward , the other song "Ishq Bhulava" could also been avoided because after 20-30 minutes another song "Zahenaseeb" also does the same thing which is to show the growing closeness of Nikhil and Meeta. But this flaws can be overlooked comparison to fun it provides.

As a debutante director ad film maker Vinil Mathew has done a commendable job. He has handled all the complex characters very well in the movie. There is no doubt that he is a good story teller. 

In the acting department Parineeti Chopra has given a solid performance once again. It is really tough to believe that she is giving such brilliant performance only in her fourth movie. Her performance in the movie can be described very well with one of the songs of the film "Chhodi Badi Drama Queen Hai". Whether it is her emotional scenes or her dramabaazi as the side effect of her anti-depression pills (which is referred as her version 2.2 in the movie) she wins the heart of everybody. Just like her earlier movies , here too she is the hero.

The other hero of the film Siddharth Malhotra has also matured a lot from his first film "Student Of The Year". He looks good , acts well , dance well too in the "Shake It Like Shammi" track. Together Siddhart and Parineeti looks very well and refreshing as couple.

There is a lot more other interesting characters which are portrayed by very well cast talented actors. Here the credit goes to the casting director Mukesh Chhabra for selecting the actors. Sharat Saxena has done a good job as Nikhil's father. Manoj Joshi stands out with his solid performance as Meeta's father. His comedy as well as emotion both will touch the audiences. He seldom gets chance to act in emotional roles but after this he should get such chances more. Adah Sharma has very limited scope , she has nothing much to do apart from looking good in traditional wedding wears and she manages that quite well. Anil Mange who played Abhinandan , Nikhil's cousin who is a big Anu Malik fan and a wannabe Indian idol will surely caught everyone's attention for his good comic timing.

Among the technical team it can be said the dialogues written by Anurag Kashyap, Harshavardhan Kulkarni, Purva Naresh and Vinil Mathew are very funny and situational. The cinematography by Sanu Varughese is good. The editing by Shweta Venkat could have been tighter. Choreography by Remo D'souza is very good in the song "Shake It Like Shammi" , the rest of the songs choreography is just okay. 

The music is by Vishal-Shekhar and some of the songs are popular too like "Drama Queen", "Zahenaseeb", "Punjabi Wedding Song" but still the songs are not that much hit that it will have any impact on this film's business. Also considering it is a romantic film the songs could have been better. The only song which is really good is "Zahenaseeb" which has been sung very well by Chinmayee Sripada and Shekhar Ravjiani . It has some really nice lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

On a whole it is a very nice feel good movie which will give you total entertainment , so in this season of love go and watch it , you will surely loose your heart to the lovely leading pair.