Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani...Watch it for Ranbir!!!

Don't expect another Andaaz apna apna from Raj Kumar santoshi and you wouldn't be disappointed. APKGK is a movie which although has no real plot, is funny and makes you laugh (although it also employs some silly jokes to do so). Though it is an ordinary movie, the viewers will definitely come out of the cinema wearing a smile.

APKGK is set in the town of Ooty where Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) is the President of a Happy club. Jennifer (Katrina kaif) moves to town with his step-parents. Ranbir falls for Katrina the first time he sees her and after some usual drama become friends with her. A twist in the plot comes when Katrina confesses her love for someone else. Ranbir helps her out to get her love. Much expectedly, in the climax Katrina realises her love for Ranbir and they unite.

Ranbir has once again proved his acting skills after Wake up sid and has displayed superb comic timing. The dance party where he keeps shaking his body (in a funny manner) and justifies it by saying "dance se pehle body ko garam kar raha hoon" is worth a mention. Katrina, as always, looks beautiful and does full justice to her role. Other supporting actors such as Upen patel are decent and do justice to their part. Further, the music of the movie is quite enjoyable and adds to the movie positives.

On the other hand, the movie lacks soul because of the absence of a real plot. The second half of the movie drags a bit. On the whole, its a movie where the characters make the movie work rather than the story.

Positives:

* Ranbir Kapoor's excellent comic timing
* Gorgeous Katrina
* Music esp. tera hone laga hoon

Negatives:

* Slow pace in second half
* Some silly jokes

Rating:***

London Dreams – Salman’s rocking show

Salman is having a good year. After Wanted, London dreams showcases Salman(who usually is blamed for sleepwalking through his roles) in yet another power packed performance. Vipul Shah has made a decent attempt and is quite successful in making an engaging drama.

London Dreams is story of two friends (Salman and Ajay) and how ambition of one friend led to the debacle of their band (London Dreams). Ajay plays an ambitious musician who wants to earn name and fame internationally through his music. He forms a band London dreams in London along with Asin (who really has nothing to do in the band) and few others. But situation take a turn when Ajay calls his childhood friend (Salman) to London to join his band. Salmain plays a rustic happy go lucky man who values friendship (with Ajay) above anything else. But Ajay grows jealous of growing popularity of Salman and his growing friendship with Asin and employs foul means to bring about Salman’s downfall.

Ajay’s role is tailor-made for him and he plays the role of a ambitious and jealous ridden man to perfection. Asin has nothing much to do and just provides the glamour quotient. But it is Salman who steals the show as the rustic villager (gifted with immense musical talent). Salman plays his role earnestly and puts forward an honest per romance. Vipul Shah's direction is decent and the cinematographer has captured London beautifully. The Wembley stadium sequence looks grand and has been shot beautifully.

But the biggest downfall of the movie is the music. Considering the fact that this is a musical this turns out heavily against the movie. Only Barso yaroon.. and Mann ko ati bhavey .. are likeable. Shankar Ehsaan loy could have done better justice to the music of the movie. Overall the movie is gripping and keeps the viewer engaged through the 150 odd minutes.

Positives:
* Salman Khan’s performance
* Beautiful locales of London
* Wembley stadium sequence
* Beautiful Asin

Negatives:
* Disappointing music
* Second half tends to drag a bit

Rating :***

Trailers of some forthcoming movies this winter

1. London dreams (Salman khan, Ajay devgan & Asin) - Trailer

2.Main aur mrs Khanna (Salman, Sohail, Govinda & kareena) - Trailer

3. All the best (Ajay Devga, sanjay Dutt, Fardeen & Bipasha) - Trailer

8 by 10 TASVEER – Lost Case

A lot is expected from the director of classics like Iqbal and Dor but Nagesh disappoints twice in row after the much forgettable Bombay to Bangkok. Nagesh starts the film on a high note but goes terribly wrong in the second half of the movie, which heavily overweighs the brilliance of the first half of the movie. The film loses its pace and the momentum it builds up in the first half as it enters the second half of the movie and leaves the audience restless.

Tasveer is a story of Jai (Akshay Kumar) who has a supernatural gift of going into the past though the photograph. He works as a forest ranger and lives with his love interest Sheela (Ayesha Takia). Jai’s father Jatin (Benjamin Gilani) is killed in a boating accident under mysterious circumstances and Jai feels wretched about losing his father and the times that could've been shared. The story then focuses on Akshay’s investigation of his father’ death. He is helped in the investigation by Happi (Javed Jaffrey). He accidentally stumbles upon the last photograph taken of the entire group of friends and family on the boat, minutes before the accident and uses his supernatural powers to unravel the mystery. He eventually unravels the mystery and comes up with a startling answer.

The second half of the movie seems to be loosely inspired by a typical 70’s bollywood movie. The double role track is simply ridiculous. As far as the performances are concerned Akshay has put up a decent effort. Ayesha takia , Sharmila tagore , Girish Karnad and others have also lived upto to the expectations. Jaaved Jaffery stands out and delivers a brilliant performance. But nothing could save the movie which had such a weak story line and it is bound to be Aki’s second flop in a row.

Positives:
• Akshay and Javed’s performance
• Bohemia’s song ‘ I Got the picture’
• Beautiful Shooting Locales
• Duration of the movie which gives respite to the audience from a movie gone wrong in the second half

Negatives
• Unconvincing Storyline ( This negativity heavily outweighs the other positives combined)
• Screenplay

Rating : *1/2

Delhi 6 – A Courageous Attempt

It requires great courage to dedicate an entire movie to Monkey man (the kaala bandar episode which occured in Delhi in 2001) and using it intelligently to deliver a strong social message to the people. A lot was expected of Rakesh Mehra after the brilliant Rang de basanti and Delhi 6 has been more or less lived up to the expectations.

Delhi 6 is the story of a young American Roshan (Abhishek bachchan) of Indian origin, who comes to India for the first time accompanying his ailing grandmother (Wahida Rehman). Little does he know that the quick trip will turn into the longest journey of his life - a journey within. Being born and brought up in America and having lead a very western lifestyle Roshan is not familiar with the sites and smells, the food and culture, the religion and beliefs, and customs of India . He thought that Dadi had left her family and loved ones back in America, only to realize that how wrong he was. The warmth and affection of the neighborhood embraced him with open arms. Amidst all this he meets the beautiful Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), who is looking for identity and expression (she wants to win the Indian Idol) and wants to break free from the typical Indian social structure, to whom Roshan is destined to lose his heart.

There are several parallel tracks in the story such as the rivalry between the two brothers, Pawan Mahlotra and Ompuri and Bittu’s dream of becoming an Indian idol but Mehra has woven all the tracks quite beautifully and has executed the screenplay brilliantly. The use of the Monkey man episode to deliver a strong social message is simply commendable although Mehra gets too preachy in the end. Abhishek does full justice to his role except the avoidable American accent. Sonam, in whatever screen time she has, is brilliant and is looking stunning. Mehra deserves special accolades for extracting special performaces from the brilliant supporting cast comprising Rishi Kapoor, Pawan Mahlotra, Om Puri, Waheeda Rehman, Supriya Pathak, Divya Dutta, Atul Kulkarni and others. Further, Binod Pradhan deserves a special award for the beautiful cinematography and the way he has captured the beauty of Delhi and specially Chandni Chowk on the camera. But Mehra loses his way a bit in the climax by the uncalled introduction of Amitabh Bachchan and the childish scene involving him and Abhishek Bachchan. On the whole, there may be some flaws in the movie but this is a movie made from the heart and succeeds in delivering message to the people while being entertaining at the same time.

Positives

• Rakesh Mehra’s brilliant Direction
• Binod Pradhan’s cinematography
• A R Rehman’s spell bounding music
• Sonam Kapoor dazzles in the small role
• Outstanding performance from the supporting cast
• Abhishek Bachchan sans his fake American Accent.

Negatives

• The Climax – Amitabh in the Bruce Almighty avtaar
• Repeated Occurrence of the Ramlila sequence
• Too Preachy in the climax

Rating : ***

Billu Barber - A simple, moral tale

Priyan (Priyadarshan) doesn’t believe in originality and new scripts and he is back after a long gap after the 2007 hit Bhool Bhulaiyaa (according to Priyan standards who is used to delivering 3 to 4 movies a year) in his trademark style wth a remake of a super hit malayam movie. This is the first time Priyan and Shahrukh have come together The script is more or less like the original Malayam (with some scenes an exact replica of the original) but Priyan revamped the script a bit and increased the presence of Shahrukh after the debacle of the Tamil remake of the same movie (Kuselan) starring superstar Rajnikant . At the outset, the movie seems to be an average bollywood Masala movie with Priyan Trademark Style.

Billu is the story of Bilas Rao Pardesi (Irfan Khan) who is a barber in the village of Budbuda, a small village in U.P. and has a wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two children. He is poverty ridden and finds it hard to make ends meet. His life changes when a superstar Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) comes to this village to shoot his latest film. A word spreads around the village that Billu is a childhood friend of Sahir Khan and billu becomes a man of the village- everyone longing for some chance of a meeting with Khan. Initially Billu refuses any favours and keeps mum about his association with Sahir, but he he starts to enjoy the ride, telling himself that he did not start anything. Billu tries to meet Sahir on repeated insistence from his family but is unable to do so.In the climax, at a school function, Sahir tells people about Billu and how he owes his success to him. Khan visits Billu's house and promises to keep in touch and to live their lives together again. Billu becomes the Hero of the Village.

The last 15 minutes is the high point of the movie which show the reunion of the two child hood friends. Priyan made an honest approach but deviated a bit from the story by focusing too much on Shahrukh and unnecessary item songs. Screenplay of the movie is below average with item numbers and random action scenes thrown here and there. Irfan Khan is the real hero of the movie and is the best choice for the role. Lara also puts up decent performance. The chemistry between Irfan and his children’s is endearing an d believable. The rest of cast include Rajpal Yadav , Om Puri and Asrani have nothing new to offer and are not exploited to the fullest in the movie. Shahrukh plays the usual self in the movie and his superstar portrayal is infact inferior when compared to OSO.

Positives :
• Last fifteen minutes of the movie
• Irfan Khan – Simply Outstanding
• Peppy Music

Negatives :
• Screenplay
• Too much focus on commercialization subdues the emotional undercurrent in the movie

Rating : **1/2

DEV D – Bold… but not engaging

Anurag Kashyap doesn’t belive in conventional cinema and he has proved this once again in Dev D. Dev D is sure an experimental cinema which is mainly targeted towards multiplex audience. Kashyap takes the basic premises of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's original Devdas, but updates much of the film's narrative to set in the present world, and makes the characters' actions and motivations more relatable to the today’s audience.

Dev D is story revolving around three characters namely Dev (Abhay Deol), Paro (Mahi Gill) and Chanda (Kalki Koechlin). Dev is the son of a rich Businessman from Punjab. He and Paro are childhood friends cum sweethearts. However, Dev leaves Paro after he hears rumours of her alleged affairs with another men. Dev goes to Delhi after Paro is married off to a rich widower. In Delhi, he indulges himself completely in drugs, alcohol and sex. Dev meets the prostitute Chanda but despite an apparent emotional connection, remorse drives him to excesses. He is not able to forget Paro and thus not able to come out from his frenzied lifestyle. However, the climax deviates from the traditional Devdas and Dev ultimately unites with Chanda.

On the whole, movie is average with the first half being pacy and engaging while the second half of the movie dragging a bit. One gets bored a bit after repeatedly seeing the boozing and smoking in the second half and the film loses its momentum gathered in the first half. Use of music instead of dialogues is a refreshing and interesting tool for narration, but song-after-song; one’s patience is bound to die. Personally speaking , second half of the film was non bearable and on the whole film is not able to keep one interested through the long 150 minutes.

Positives

• Abhay Deol is effortless as an actor and is simply superb as Dev.
• Emotional Atyachaar song is highlight of the film
• Paro is perfectly casted for her role

Negatives

• Second half of the movie is repetitive to the point of being excessive. This being the major drawback of the movie
• Excess of songs.
• Kalki Ghosh as Chanda - leaves much to be desired as an actor


Rating : **