Bollywood Film Critic ™: August 2013

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Bollywood Movie Releases- 2013 September, August, July

September Movies:

Zanjeer

(Simultaneously launched in Telegu as - ‘Thoofan’ )
Directed by:Apoorva Lakhia Produced by:Reliance Entertainment, Puneet Prakash Mehra,Sumeet Prakash Mehra,Flying Turtle Films
Screenplay by: Suresh Nair,Apoorva Lakhia
Story by: Apoorva Lakhia
Based on: Zanjeer(1973 movie with Amitabh Bachchan) by Salim-Javed
Starring:Ram Charan Teja, Priyanka Chopra,Sanjay Dutt(in hindi), Srihari(in telegu),Prakash Raj, Mahie Ankur Bhatia, Atul Kulkarni (Hindi),Tanikella Bharani (Telugu) Music: Meet Bros Anjjan, Chirantan Bhatt
Release date: 6 September 2013
Language: Hindi,Telugu
Genre: Action thriller.
Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93leN9TY3hk
Rating on Trailer and Songs: Will have to check out possibly on DVD if Ramcharan can stand up like Amitabh!

Shudd Desi Romance/ Random Desi Romance

Directed by: Maneesh Sharma
Produced by: Aditya Chopra
Written by: Jaideep Sahni
Starring: Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra, Vaani Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Music by; Sachin-Jigar
Release date: September 6, 2013
Genre: Romance, comedy
Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Hle83Plpo

Grand Masti-2

Directed by: Indra Kumar
Produced by: Ashok Thakeria, Indra Kumar
Written by: Milap Zaveri, Tushar Hiranandani
Starring :Vivek Oberoi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Sonalee Kulkarni, Bruna Abdullah, Karishma Tanna, Kainaat Arora, Maryam Zakaria, Manjari Fadnis
Music by: Anand Raj Anand, Sanjeev Darshan
Release date: 13 September 2013
Genre: Comedy
Rating on preview trailer and songs: Run of the mill Adult comedy. Not worth a watch.

John Day

Directed by: Ahishor Solomon
Produced by: Anjum Rizvi, Aatef A Khan and K Asif
Written by: Ahishor Solomon
Starring:Naseeruddin Shah, Randeep Hooda, Shernaz Patel, Sharat Saxena,Vipin Sharma, Elena Kazan
Music by: Kshitij Tarey & Strings
Genre: Thriller
Release Date 13 Sept, 2013 Friday
Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQ0jT-ZRQI

Phata Poster Nikhla Hero

Directed by: Rajkumar Santoshi
Produced by: Ramesh Taurani, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Written by:Rajkumar Santoshi
Starring:Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D'Cruz, Padmini Kolhapure
Music by: Pritam
Release date: 20 September 2013

Genre: Comedy and Masala Entertainer
Rating on Trailer previews and songs : This could be an interesting possible watch.
Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCrNoy5OeOI
Songs: "Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai"- Shahid kapoor is at his hilarious best in this funny song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L899QuA1E24

August

Madras Café

Directed by:Shoojit Sircar
Produced by: John Abraham,Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Ronnie Lahiri
Written by:Somnath Dey, Shubendu Bhattacharya, Juhi Chaturvedi(dialogues)
Starring: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, Rashi Khanna, Siddharth Basu
Music by: Shantanu Moitra
Release date: August 23, 2013

Once upon ay time in Mumbai Dobaara!

Directed by:Milan Luthria
Produced by:Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
Written by: Rajat Arora
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha
Music by: Pritam, Anupam Amod
Release date: 15 August 2013

Chennai Express

Directed by:Prakash Jha
Produced by: Prakash Jha, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Written by:Anjum Rajabali, Prakash Jha,Rutvik Oza
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Amrita Rao
Music by: Salim-Sulaiman, Indian Ocean, Meet Bros Anjjan,Aadesh Shrivastava
Lyrics. Prasoon Joshi
Release date: August 30, 2013

July 2013

Lootera

Released- Jul 5

Policegiri
Released-July5

Bhaag Milka Bhaag
Released- Jul 12

Ramaya Vastavaiya
released- Jul 19

DDAY
Released July 19

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NlCkqBGnRY

Issaq-
Released- Jul 26

Monday, August 12, 2013

Chennai Express – Don’t Analyze, Just Laugh.

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan , Deepika Padukone,Nikitin Dheer, Priyamani, Sathyaraj, Upen Patel, Manorama
Producer: Gauri Khan, Karim Morani, Ronnie Screwwala, Siddharth Roy Kapoor
Director: Rohit Shetty
Story: K Subhash
Screenplay: Yunus Sajawal, Robin Bhatt
Music Director: Vishal Dadlani , Shekhar Ravjiani
Running time: 140 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Action , Masala Entertainer
Language: Hindi &Tamil
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZGR5Sj1Bfo
Rating: ***.5(3.5)
Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

Let me start with a positive note and say the fact- Chennai Express was a funny entertainer with a lot of laugh out loud moments like a laughathon. Yes it was very silly, predictable, slapstick, cheesy, a no brainer but will have to say yet funny!

The movie has Sharukh Khan playing Rahul, this time more a legit 40 year old;) who after his grandfathers death, boards the Chennai Express to supposedly immerse his ashes in Rameshwaram a town is Tamilnadu as per grandpas wishes. Parodying the train scene from DilwaleDulhania Leh Jayenge, SRK helps board the damsel in distress Deepika Padokone ( Meena ) and the Shrek size goons who are following her. Meena………….Sundaram is running away from her father ,a local Don of Komban who wants to marry her off to another strong Goon for expanding his power! That is the nonexistent plot, story, and the movie in a few lines.

The movie also has a parody of references/ dialogs from Sharukh Khans other movies, it has a lot of Tamil spoken without subtitles; It has hilarious singsong conversations in tune with SRK songs to communicate ingeniously without the suspicion of the Tamil speaking goons. Yes all this is juvenile and silly but yet it’s funny and incidentally clean and kid friendly comedy unlike other movies which sometimes tend to get vulgar in order to be slapstick comedy entertainers.

While listing more details one can’t forget the scenic locales and colorful sets; beautiful south Indian sarees , heavy accent and language mishmash guffaws, good and bad mix of music and songs by Vishal-Shekar, dramatic action scenes of typical Rohit Shetty movies, and pretty presence of deepika who has shades of good acting and over acting, and lastly Shahrukh Khans histrionics and overacting, which makes the movie entertaining!

I think the movie is doing well irrespective of its simple no brainer comedy because of the masala movie formula, the timing of its launch on Eid with audiences seeking Eid ka shandaar entertainment ; and finally it’s an entertaining clean comedy one can take the kids to theatres to watch!

If you don’t dissect and analyze the details, it’s worth a watch for some laughs.

{p.s- If you watch this movie in the company of good South Indian friends, like I did, you will enjoy it more ;) }

Check out another masala movie with the same lead of Sharukh Khan and Deepika Padukone- " Om Shanti Om ". http://bollywoodfilmcritic.blogspot.com/2007/11/om-shanti-om-spoof-on-bollywood.html