Review of Shaandaar

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Shaandaar is a romantic comedy film directed by Vikas Bahl. Vikas has given hits like Chillar Party and Queen in the past. Shaandaar deserved a much shaandaar treatment by Vikas after his super successful film Queen. It is also claimed to be first Destination Wedding film of Bollywood. The film does use the motion picture in a few scenes where prelude to the plot is set and narrated by Naseeruddin Shah. Though the film starts on a high note of humour, but in the later parts of the film, the fun part falls flat, it fizzles down. The best part of the film is its cast - effortless Pankaj Kapur, spontaneous Shahid Kapur, bubbly Alia, cute Sanah. They definitely bring good moments on screen. I must say that, one can’t just write off this movie. One can enjoy this film in parts for the charm that its actors bring on screen.

The film begins with the motion picture along with Naseeruddin Shah’s narration, which sets the prelude to the plot. Bipin (Pankaj Kapur) adopts Alia (Alia Bhatt) and brings her home. Sushma Seth as Bipin’s mother – Kamala Arora, matriarch of the Arora family, rules the house along with Bipin’s wife (Niki Aneja). Both Kamala and Bipin’s wife are shown to be materialistic in nature. Though Alia is not accepted by both of them, she manages to deal with their hatred.

Alia’s sister Eesha (Sanah Kapur, Shahid’s real sister) is getting married to Robin Fundwani (Vikas Verma). It is more of a business deal for Kamala and Harry Fundwani (Sanjay Kapoor), a merger of two major business houses of India. For Robin and Eesha also, it is just a compromise for family’s sake. Robin is Harry’s brother who is flaunting his 8 ½ packs throughout the movie. Harry glitters in gold, is obsessed with gold. He is getting his brother married to Eesha, since Kamala has promised them the gold which equals the weight of Eesha (she is shown as plump girl). Both the families Aroras and Fundwanis travel for destination wedding. A fairy tale castle (probably in Europe) is chosen for this wedding.

Jagjinder Joginder aka JJ (Shahid Kapoor)’s entry happens in a completely filmy manner, his bike colliding with a vintage car driven by Bipin with his wife and daughters. This encounter, where the real father-son duo comes face-to-face on screen is funny. JJ happens to be the wedding organizer for Eesha-Robin’s wedding.

Alia is an insomniac. It is great to see her chemistry with her on-screen father Pankaj Kapur whom she calls Beeps. He designs dreams for her and alia keeps all the dreams safe in a box saying that she would watch every dream when she would start sleeping. Coincidently JJ is also an insomniac. As can be predicted, in the background of wedding preparations, another love story blossoms between JJ and Alia in a very cool fashion. It is great to see father becoming possessive of his daughter when he realizes that there is another man in her life.

There are certain low points in the movie. Rather entry of Sanjay Kapur as Harry Fundwani unfortunately is a low point, since it breaks the flow of humour tone set up till then. Drag is felt post-interval. Towards the end, the film just nosedives into silly comedy, a beautiful plot is made into a series of silly sub-plots. A scene just prior to climax where a girl speaks up for her right to live, could have been a show-stopper scene, but the way it is handled on screen has trivialized the message.

Certain characters are just added in the film viz. twin sisters, mirroring everything; a small kid with bow and arrow ready to hit the target etc. Anjana Sukhani is just a filler, does not get a single dialogue in the film. Lot of characters viz. Bipin’s brothers except the designer brother gets lost in the crowd.

Harry’s way of identifying with every successful individual as Sindhis (even with Michael Jackson) does not generate much humour. Karan Johar does make a special appearance with ‘Mehandi with Karan’. I am wondering whether these scenes were required at all? Music is average.

The best part of the film is definitely the moments between Alia-Shahid, Alia-Pankaj, Alia-Eesha. And the way, they have handled and ustified their respective characters, is surely going to bring smiles to your face.

How does the story move further? What happens to the destination wedding of Eesha-Robin? How does Alia-JJ’s relationship shape up? What happens when Alia comes to know regarding her biological parents? How does she respond? How does Bipin deal with his daughter Alia’s getting comfortable with JJ? What happens to Kamala’s business deal approach? Who actually benefit in the end?

Shaandaar definitely deserved a much shaandaar treatment by ‘Queen’ director Vikas Bahl. Shaandaar has its own moments of humour to entertain you, though the fun element nosedives into silly comical scenes later. Watch it, if you just want some very light-hearted stuff.

Rating: 2.75/5 (Almost Good)

Review of Pyaar ka Punchnama 2

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Cast: Karthik Aaryan (Anshul aka Gogo), Nushrat Bharucha (Ruchika aka Chiku), Sunny Singh (Chauka aka Siddharth), Sonnalli Sehgall (Supriya), Ishita Raj (Kusum), Omkar Kapoor (Tarun aka Thakur), Manvir Singh (Sunny)

Direction: Luv Ranjan

Produced by: Abhishek Pathak

Written by:  Rahul Mody, Tarun Jain, Luv Ranjan

Music: Toshi Sabri, Hitesh Sonik, Luv Ranjan, Clinton Cerejo

Cinematography: Sudhir K Choudhary

Edited by: Akiv Ali

Release Date: 16^th October, 2015

Duration: 136 minutes

Language: Hindi

Pyaar ka Punchnama 2 is a sequel to 2011 film Pyaar ka Punchnama by Luv Ranjan. He was successful in making a youth rom-com. It was a fresh perspective with contemporary takes on love, twists, and turns. Luv Ranjan tries the same formulae in this sequel too, but according to me, it is highly disappointing. The humour occasionally does generate some laughter, but for most part of the movie, it just falls flat. It is a one-sided take by Luv Ranjan. According to him, the girls manipulate, exploit the boys. Although both the movies are misogynistic in nature, this sequel’s approach does not create any magic. It is a sort of running commentary on why relationships with women are impossible. Pyaar ka Punchnama 2 though follows the same path and same theme as that of its prequel, its laughter quotient is far less than its prequel.  

The film begins with the three bachelor friends Anshul aka Gogo (Karthik Aaryan), Siddharth aka Chauka (Sunny Singh), and Tarun aka Thakur (Omkar Kapoor) trapped in traffic while on their way to a bar. They stay together, well-placed professionally, although Tarun being the most highly paid amongst the trio. For all the three boys, life is all about working hard as well as partying hard.  

Spicing up their lives, enter three girls into the scene. Anshul meets Ruchika aka Chiku (Nushrat Bharucha). It was almost a love at first sight where Anshul confidently shares his number and even asks her to make a tattoo in his name. Siddharth identifies his girl-friend Supriya (Sonnalli Sehgall). Tarun aka Thakur (Omkar Kapoor) finds his girl-friend Kusum (Ishita Raj) in gym. The scenes, where Tarun meets Kusum and letches at her, is difficult to tolerate.

All the three girls are of three different nature. Chiku is from a high-profile family, who is shopaholic, has her own style of living, does not mind even having her ‘male best friend’ share flat or room. Chiku feels that her boyfriend shall be always available to take her as well as her friends for shopping, beauty parlours. Supriya is from a middle class conservative family, who is afraid to commit in love because of her parents. Kusum is independent-spirited, always conscious of sharing the bills (which is non-negotiable for her), keeps on sharing her concern over Tarun spending his money over his friends.

How the three couples’ relationships are projected in the movie? What all complications arise?  Who takes the control of the relationships? Do the boys find the girls cool even after dating as they appeared to be initially? The film does mention the fakeness with which the facebook relationship status and profile photographs are updated. The boys blabbering and complaining about the girls’ behaviour and regret of their freedom being curbed generates laughter in parts, but most of time, these are bit annoying and irritating. What is the fate of these three relationships, do these survive?

I agree with the theme which is shown in the film that relationships need to evolve, and are not always bed of roses. But my problem is with the one-sided track of the film, why only females are made responsible for the ill-fate of the relationships? Having tried boys’ perspective in the prequel, Luv Ranjan could have tried a balanced perspective in this film.

As far as the performances are considered, we have seen this Karthik and Nashrut in the earlier version as well. Sunny has definitely given an entertaining performance and Omkar Kapoor is also good. As far as Ishita and Sonnalli are concerned, their performances are fine. Music disappoints. It is absolutely average.

Pyaar ka Punchnama 2 may manage to entice people who genuinely have some vendetta against women. It is very much one-sided track which makes the female appear evil, manipulative, and exploitative. It is very much from males’ perspectives only.

Rating: 1/5 (Poor)

Review of Talvar

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Cast: Irrfan Khan (Ashwin Kumar, Investigation officer of CBI), Tabu (Reema Kumar, wife of Ashwin Kumar), Ayesha Parveen (Shruti Tandon), Neeraj Kabi (Ramesh Tandon, Shruti’s father), Konkana Sen Sharma (Nutan Tandon, Shruti’s mother), Sohum Shah (ACP Vedant Mishra), Gajraj Rao (Inspector Dhaniram), Atul Kumar (Paul), Sumit Gulati (Kanhaiya)

Direction: Meghna Gulzar

Producers: Vineet Jain, Vishal Bhardwaj

Production Company: Junglee Pictures / VB Pictures

Written by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Screenplay: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cinematography: Pankaj Kumar

Music by:  Vishal Bhardwaj

Edited by: A Sreekar Prasad

Release Date: 2^nd October, 2015 (Showcased in Toronto International Film Festival on 14^th September, 2015)

Duration: 2 hours 12 minutes

Language: Hindi, English (titled as Guilty)

Talvar, a film by Meghna Gulzar, is based on 2008 Noida double murder case of a teenage girl and her domestic help – Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj. This case had caught the attention of whole nation. For almost a month, it was the top news in every News Channel and captured the headlines of every newspaper. One of the most talked about and intriguing murder mystery case. The tragedy with this case is that the mystery is still unresolved. Parents were convicted for this murder in 2013 and still in prison after getting sentenced for life imprisonment. Many questions remain unanswered. Even the parents’ imprisonment does not give any closure to this case. Although the circumstantial evidence worked against them, somehow, the nation still remains divided as far as the parents’ convicting is concerned. People are not able to accept that well educated and civilized doctor couple could murder their only daughter. Many felt that it could be a case of honour killing. A few others felt that there could be more to the whole episode than what is being talked in the media. Meghna’s Talvar is fictional dramatization of the events revolving around Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. Early this year (30^th January, 2015), we had seen ‘Rahasya’ by Manish Gupta. This film was also inspired by the same case, but the plot completely deviated from the facts apart from that in some initial shots. Meghna has definitely done justice as far as recording the facts are concerned. The plot, characters are very closely etched out. Even the names of the characters sound very close (Khempal for Hemraj; Ramesh for Rajesh; Nutan for Nupur etc.), or synonyms (Kanhaiya for Krishna).

Nutan (Konkana Sen Sharma) finds her 14 year old daughter Shruti Tandon dead in her bedroom (Sameer Vihar, Noida). Family’s domestic help Khempal is found missing and by default, he is sought after by the police as a prime suspect of Shruti’s murder. But the next day, his partially decomposed body is recovered from the terrace of the building. It is being said that police officers had not carefully gathered the evidence from the crime scene and the very same facts are shown in the film too. The film takes a dig at how media and investigation officers goofed up the whole case. Rather, the media was abstained from covering the case details and making judgmental / not yet proven allegations against the victim’s family. The senior police officer is shown to be very very casual even during gathering of evidence, who is more busy with his phone. He botched the whole initial crime-scene investigation. These initial investigation by police officers bring the doctor couple under radar of doubt which further leads to the arrest of Shruti’s father Ramesh Tandon (Neeraj Kabi). The case is given to CDI agency (an elite investigation agency) for further investigation. Ashwin Kumar (Irrfan Khan) enters into the scene as an investigation officer, who has been asked to resolve the mystery behind this double murder case. Ashwin believed that the parents didn’t do the crime and he focuses his investigation towards Ashwin’s compounder Kanhaiya (Sumit Gulati), and two other accomplices. Narco test was done on them to figure out the facts and build up the case methodically. Ashwin was almost there to prove that Kanhaiya and his accomplices committed the murders, but some goof-up happens with the evidence. The case is handed over to another probe team who refocuses on parents as the suspects.

How the investigation moves further? How, once exonerated doctor couple, get sentenced for life imprisonment for killing their daughter? Two teams of the same agency come up with different hypotheses? Which one is actually valid?  

The film highlights the way how investigation and judicial system works in our country. It also talks about the kind of journalism today. The media is so judgmental at times, rather decides the course of investigation and verdict even when the case is under trial. The stories are sensationalized by the media. This case could have had a proper closure, provided the case was handled responsibly by concerned officers right from the beginning. 

Irrfan is definitely very good as CDI officer. Less screen time is there for Neeraj Kabi and Konkana Sen as Shruti’s parents. Neeraj is good. Konkana is definitely a great actress, but I felt that her character of Nutan was a bit away from the real Nupur. Tabu has a special appearance in the film, as Irrfan’s wife – Reema Kumar. Their relationship issues are shown in the film, which was just a filler, since did not add to the plot. Tabu, a great actress, was very much underutilized in the film. Sumit Gulati who plays Kanhaiya is noticeable in his role. Rest of the cast have very well justified their roles.

This piece of my writing is hardly any review of the movie as such. Since I feel that the movie is very much factual and I could only document what has been covered. It is challenging to review such a film. Almost most of the details viz. the events, tampering of the evidence, doubt with the postmortem reports etc. are covered. It is focused on the three different courses of action / investigation results which finally convicted the parents. The first one was by the local police, who officially issued the statement it to be honour-killing by father, also raised fingers on the victim’s and parents’ characters. The second perspective was of Ashwin Kumar, whose investigation was on Dr. Ramesh’s compunder Kanhaiya and his accomplices. And the third perspective was from probe team who took the case from Ashwin and disregarded his findings and held the parents culpable.

Does the movie take any sides? The movie is definitely unbiased but it is more in the format of documenting the story. For those, who have followed the case closely, no new elements are there. So, one wonders at the end of the film, what new is being showcased in this film and conveyed. It may disappoint you, if you want the answers to the still unresolved murder mystery. It may appeal to you, if you just want to understand the most intriguing murder mystery and the events which led to the victim’s parents’ imprisonment.     

Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar is very very close to the real happenings of Noida Double Murder Mystery case. It documents the facts. Definitely a decent watch.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good+)

Quick Review of Talvar

Image courtesy: www.indianews.com

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Neeraj Kabi, Konkana Sen Sharma

Direction : Meghna Gulzar

Producers: Vineet Jain, Vishal Bhardwaj

Written by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Music by:  Vishal Bhardwaj

Release Date: 2^nd October, 2015

Talvar, a film by Meghna Gulzar, is based on 2008 Noida double murder case of a teenage girl and her domestic help – Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj. This case had caught the attention of whole nation. For almost a month, it was the top news in every News Channel and captured the headlines of every newspaper. One of the most talked about and intriguing murder mystery case. The tragedy with this case is that the mystery is still unresolved. Parents were convicted for this murder in 2013 and still in prison after getting sentenced for life imprisonment. Many questions remain unanswered. Even the parents’ imprisonment does not give any closure to this case. Although the circumstantial evidence worked against them, somehow, the nation still remains divided as far as the parents’ convicting is concerned. People are not able to accept that well educated and civilized doctor couple could murder their only daughter. Many felt that it could be a case of honour killing. A few others felt that there could be more to the whole episode than what is being talked in the media. Meghna’s Talvar is fictional dramatization of the events revolving around Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. The plot, characters are very closely etched out.

The film highlights the way how investigation and judicial system works in our country. It also talks about the kind of journalism today. The media is so judgmental at times, rather decides the course of investigation and verdict even when the case is under trial. The stories are sensationalized by the media. This case could have had a proper closure, provided the case was handled responsibly by concerned officers right from the beginning. 

Irrfan is definitely very good as CDI officer. Less screen time is there for Neeraj Kabi and Konkana Sen as Shruti’s parents, but impactful performance.

The movie is very much factual. Watch one of the most intriguing murder mystery.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good+)