Bollywood Movie Reviews
Ki & Ka Movie Review: Balki’s Engaging Marital Drama
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arjun Kapoor,Swaroop Sampat, Rajit Kapoor
Directed by: R Balki
Movie Review: The Kapoors’ Combined Chemistry Confers A Captivating Hue To Balki’s Engaging Marital Drama
The streeling is pulling Arjun Kapoor into the kitchen.And Kareena Kapoor doesn’t mind as long he is fully functional in the bedroom
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That, dear audience, in a nutshell is Ki & Ka. A film about role reversal between the sexes where the ambitious wife Kiya(Kareena) goes out to earn the bread and butter, while the husband Kabir(Arjun) is blissfully happy looking after the home.
Immediately ,there is an infectious charm to the proceedings. Every scene is a joy to behold. It could have something to do with Kareena Kapoor’s presence. She lights up every frame as only she can. And then when you have the cinematographic genius P CSreeram manning the lenses even Arjun Kapoor looks so radiant, you want to ask this couple….where do they generate so much sunshine in their souls?
Most films about married couples in Bollywood are paeans of pain. Well, surprise surprise! A marriage need not be a melody of misery, provided the couple does what it wants to without caring about how they would look to the world.
So when Kabir meets Kia on a flight , they hit it off instantly.The words that flow between the cool Kabir and the hot Kiya are so conversational I wondered if Arjun and Kareenathought of the dialogues as they played out their characters’ combined karma. Thedialogues are never florid or bombastic. Every character , even in those very engaging boardroom meeting in Kareena/Kiya’s workplace, are so lived-in , they are worthy of being illustrative of how couples should converse in our films from now till the time when rom-coms are made in Bollywood .
The incidental character even a random staggler like the guy who shushes the couples in the hospital is memorable.And I fell in love with Kiya’s maid who saunters in at noon,puts on her employer’s tv, plonks herself on the sofa and phones her boyfriend to come over for some fun.
Seriously, I want to see an entire film on her life.
For now,there is Balki and his take on how to playfully dodge gender stereotyping in a country where even words have a gender. Given the unbelievable patriarchal prejudices it takes guts for a man like Kabir to tell his father to shove his wealth up his you-know-what,as he, Kabir wants to be an housekeeper like his mother. It takes even more guts for an actor to play a man who is happy cooking, cleaning and living off his wife’s income.
Arjun Kapoor makes the character’s unconventional ,some would say downright embarrassing aspirations seem so normal, you wonder why more husbands don’t adopt the you-go-I-stay route.This is by far Arjun’s most accomplished performance. The joy he exudes in house-keeping chores is almost contagious. The hurt he conveys is palpable when his wife begins to resent his growing popularity (Abhimaan in reverse) as the face of the metrosexual kindered man very happily, very heterosexually in touch with the feminine side of his personality.
Perhaps it is the company that Arjun keeps. Kareena Kapoor Khan’s dazzling beauty (I am afraid there is no other way to describe it) plus her ability to communicate her character’s frantic ambitions without making her seem like a man in skirts, makes Balki’s job a lot easier. How wrong can you go when you have so much beauty grace and talent at your disposal?
Not that Balki is in the mood to get lazy with his charming couple’s ability to make the frames look fabulous even when they are dressed in their night clothes or perched on the potty. To make a film where the couple is submerged under no marital stress(Kareena’s easygoing mother , played by the long-missing Swaroop Sampat is the antithesis of JayaBhaduri’s meddlesome mom, Achala Sachdev in Kora Kagaz who wrecks havoc on her daughter’s marriage) is not as easy as it sounds.
This genial film about two young free-spirited people who assume non-traditional roles and then live happily ever after(almost) is powered by terrific directorial treatment.Freed of flamboyant and florid flourishes the free-flowing narrative sweeps you into its arms with its understated charm.
Much of non-dramatic scenes are played pitch-perfectly because of the writing and the two actors. Before too long you begin to care for Kabir and Kiya the way you would for a couple in the neighbourhood that doesn’t quite fit in.
The lengthy sequence where she is traumatized by a suspected pregnancy winds its way through a series of finely cut shots(Chandan Arora’s editing keeps the proceeding snappy but gives the couple space to express their feelings comfortably) adding up to a sequence that’s savagely real and funny and somehow,slightly sad too.
These are scenes from a marriage that will outlast temporary setbacks.
The crisis point in Kiya and Kabir’s winsome togetherness is reached in a tongue-in-cheek homage to Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan. Kiya’s outburst accusing Arjun of being a scheming manipulator makes her look awfully unfair and rather paranoid. Wives, we know,are capable of such temporary lapses of reason.
The crisis, you feel, is brought on because every film needs one. Ironically the climactic crisis in the couple’s marriage is precipitated by Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan who make a very agreeable joint appearance.The best dialogue of the film is given to Mrs Bachchanwho tells her superstar husband, “If I had continued my career and if you had agreed to look after our home I would have been the one waving to fans outside.”
Touche.
The film begins with Arjun Kapoor sobbing on a flight and ends with Kareena Kapoorsobbing on another flight.
They are welcome to their drama.We came away smiling from this affable drama that proves a happy marriage is not a myth.
Not yet.
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Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat Is Anurag Kashyap’s Mellowest Most Meditative Movie In Many Years

Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat
Written & Directed by Anurag Kashyap
Rating: *** ½
That annoying cackle! In one of the two love stories that are fused together in Anurag Kashyap’s fascinating new work of heart, Yakub, the intellectually dim loverboy has a laugh like a hyena on heat which is hard to beat and anything but a treat.
Silly impetuous Yaqub(Karan Mehta) stalks silly adventurous underage Amrita(Alaya F). Somewhere in London another a struggling musician Hameet(Karan Mehta, again) is stalked by Ayesha(Alaya F), again underage , the rich spoilt pampered lonely daughter of a Pakistani millionaire who, according to Ayesha, bangs everything that moves.
In one of the film’s most beautifully conceived sequences Ayesha tells the introverted Harmeet why she cannot help being his little lamb, why she goes all mushy when she looks at him.
It’s a memorable monologue brilliantly performed by Alaya . She is most certainly a better actor than her grandfather Kabir Bedi and her mother Pooja Bedi.Karan Mehta is a notable find.He will find his way eventually.
The narrative scampers from Dalhousie to London and back again without skipping a beat. There is a virile fluency about the narrative quite difficult to pinpoint and define. But it’s there underlining almost every scene.
What doesn’t work at all is Vicky Kaushal’s DJ act. Mouthing gyan and Gulzar as if he owns them, Kaushal is as annoying as Yaqub’s laughter. The film needed a far more sturdy and centralized narrator. Not this idiot in a headband trying to be cool but remaining just a fool who has probably never been to school.
That apart, Kashyap packs in quite a punch in both the love stories. He lets the couple make massive blunders in their relationships and doesn’t judge them. The mistakes in fact add a luster of unvarnished credibility to the going-on. Oftentimes, especially in the Indian segment, the lovers are shown to be muddled headed and reckless. But that, says Kashyap, is what makes them so much in love.
Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat is a charming mix of fluid fantasy and raw realism.Sometimes it is hard to tell the fantasy from the reality. The coincidences especially the one that ties the two couples, are a bit too much Gulshan Nanda in Shakespeare. But that’s what makes love what it is. A puzzle which only Gulzar’s lines can define: Sirf ehsaas hai yeh rooh se mehsoos karo pyar ko pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do. Touche.
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Pathaan Is A Slick Spin On SRK’s Stardom

Pathaan Movie Review: There is no reason why any review of Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan(directed by Siddharth Anand but it’s an SRK showcase all the way) needs to be written. The two-and-a-half hour eruption of stylish action will be seen at least once by every movie patron in India, and then of course out West where Sharon Stone, I believe, has already bought bulk tickets for the entire weekend for her friends, family, fans and househelp .
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Pathaan, a RAW agent
John Abraham as Jim, a rogue agent turned leader of ‘Outfit X’
Deepika Padukone as Rubina Mohsin, a ISI agent
Ashutosh Rana as Colonel Sunil Luthra
Manish Wadhwa as General Qadir
Dimple Kapadia
Siddhant Ghegadmal
Gautam Rode
Gavie Chahal
Shaji Choudhary
Diganta Hazarika as an ally of Pathaan
Salman Khan as Tiger/Avinash Sing Rathore (cameo appearance)
Directed by Siddharth Anand
Rating: *** ½
Pathaan is a very slick action film. The stunts leave us open mouthed , like Sharon Stone when she saw SRK pass by.
We get to see Shah Rukh Khan more than just pass by in the title role. He is all there muscled and armed ready to take on the world to protect his country. There is a lot of stress in the rippling writing on how patriotic ‘Pathaan’ is. And if we consider the fact that the audiences do not separate the character from the actor when it comes to Salman or Shah Rukh, then the dialogues on nationalism(by Abbas Tyrewala) make a lot of sense.
The political undertones(Article 370 is the triggering point for the bullet bath) are not to be missed. The director won’t let you.
Speaking of Salman and Shah Rukh their Karan-Arjun kinship in their sequence together is winsomely rugged. Most of the film is designed to give Indian fans of Shah Rukh Khan and action cinema a run for their money.
Director Siddharth Anand has a fairly firm grip over a plot that goes all over the place. Not that there is much of it to go anywhere. The screenplay is slinky skeletal and not epic in intent content or impact. But there is always a sense of urgency built into the goings-on. So that we never get a chance to get distracted.
On the other hand, the unfolding of the surprises in the plot is a bit like doing a Santa on a child who already knows about the Christmas gifts hidden under the bed.
Visually, Pathaan is a feast of fury. The fights especially between Shah Rukh and John Abraham(the latter as a seething terrorist grits his teeth so hard we fear for his teeth) are virile and boisterous. The sound decibel drowns out all subtlety.
But then who is in this for tact? Be prepared for your senses to be attacked.
Pathaan Premise
Pathaan, an exiled RAW field operative is assigned to take down his old nemisis named Jim, a former RAW agent turned rogue, who leads “Outfit X”, a private terrorist organization, which is planning to spread a deadly virus dubbed “Raktbeej” across India.
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An Action Hero, Fastpaced Funny & Spot-On

An Action Hero
Starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Jaideep Ahlawat
Written & Directed by Anirudh Iyer
Rating: *** ½
There is something delectably different about this mass entertainer. It is neatly plotted and to-the-point. It avoids the bullshit element in mass entertainment. The eponymous Action Hero Ayushmann Khurrana has no family or girlfriend waiting for him after the shooting.
Where does Maadhav come from? Why does he have a British passport(why not a Canadian passport?) if not to escape swiftly after he accidently kills a Haryanvi goon? The slayed goon(menacingly played by Sumit Singh)is well connected.It can’t get any better than Jaideep Ahlaway, can it?
In London, Ahlawat’s Bhoora Solanki is shown to be ruthless in his pursuit of justice for his brother.And yet he lets Maanav slip out of his hands, not once but repeatedly.
A secret fan, perhaps? The breathless plot allows no room for back-story speculation. It is all done in the spirit of a super-heist, without the ransom. The film is enjoyable most of the way except for some major diversions. The subplot about a restaurateur Sai(Neeraj Madhav) doesn’t fit in.It’s the kind of character that pops up in a long-running television serial. Also the entire track about the dreaded international don(modelled on you-know-who) is so out of its depth it feels more like an afterthought than an organic part of the plot.
That said, there is plenty to enjoy in An Action Hero. Both Khurrana and Ahlawat are in revved-up form. They play against each most effectively, almost like a on-the-run Tom and a persistent Jerry . The plot should have focused on them.
The comments on media trial and the demonization of Bollywood are hilarious.This is a clever intelligent film that sometimes trips over in self-admiration but manages to stay afloat most of the way.
Bollywood Movie Reviews
Uunchai, Not Quite The Dizzying Heights, But Special

Uunchai
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Danny Denzongpa, Parineeti Chopra, Neena Gupta and Sarika
Directed by Sooraj Barjatya
Rating: ***
The aging protagonists aspire to travel only to the foothills of the Himalayas.The film too doesn’t aim for the summit, but is happy to be grounded cosily somewhere at the foothills as long as the footfalls are there.
Uunchai certainly deserves an audience. For all its flaws of wheezing pacing and panting drama it is nonetheless a film that comes from the heart,although I must admit it doesn’t really stir up a storm of emotions in the audience. But yes,it is touching if you are a sucker for cinema on lifelong friendships and unconditional loyalty.
Mr Bachchan logistically takes pride of place, as Amit Shrivastava(the surname is the Bachchans’ actual passport identification). Amit is a successful author who sells fake gyan to the multitudes.
“Sudhro,” warns idealistic friend Bhupen(Danny Denzongpa) and then promptly dies.
Bhupen three best friends, played by Bachchan, Kher and Irani now decide to take a trek to the base of the Himalayas. Writer Abhishek Dixit(based on story by Sunil Gandhi) has his art in the right place. But he chokes it up with too many back stories for every character so that the film at 170 minutes feels like marathon run for the elderly which becomes an ordeal for the spectators once the participants lose their energy.
One subplot in Gorakhpur about Anupam’s ungrateful ancestors(featuring Kher’s brother) cribbing endlessly about haveli repairs and rising costs should have been taken out on the editing table. And pray tell, which daughter tells her visiting parents and their close friends to f…k off since her birthday guests would feel uncomfortable? These are characters that needed not only polishing up but also a vigorous shake by the shoulders . They are so unidimensional they belong in an animation film.
Another weird plot twist: why should Bhupen’s friends be upset with the love of his life(Sarika) for abandoning him? This is quite what Neena Gupta rightly describes as overstepping the line of friendship.
Neena Gupta’s marital bonding with Boman Irani comes across as very real and endearing. This, I suspect is more to do with the two actors’ skills than anything else. By the time the plot reaches the Himalayas we are as exhausted as the protagonists.
These are identifiable people who deserved a more compact and incisive plot, not this meandering road trip which seems to been constructed like building blocks in a child’s hands .
Nonetheless Uunchai has a sufficient heart to make it a special film.But it could have been much more special with more skilled writing.
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