Bollywood Film Critic ™: March 2014

Queen

Gulab Gang

Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla
Director: Soumik Sen
Producers: Anubhav Sinha, Abhinay Deo
Writers: Soumik Sen, Anubhav Sinha
Music : Soumik Sen
Release date: 7 March 2014
Genre: Social Drama (based on a true story!)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcN8RR3Ry4

Total Siyapaa

Cast: Ali Zafar, Yami Gautam, Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher
Director: E. Nivas
Producers: Neeraj Pandey, Shital Bhatia
Writer:     Neeraj Pandey
Story :    Rules Shankarr
Music:     Ali Zafar
Release date:     7 March 2014
Genre: Romantic comedy
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXgVgSdU7ko

Bewakoofiyaan

Cast : Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Director: Nupur Asthana
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Story : Habib Faisal
Music : Raghu Dixit
Background Score: Hitesh Sonik
Release date: 14 March 2014
Genre: Romantic Comedy

Youngistaan

Cast: Jackky Bhagnani, Neha Sharma, Farooq Sheikh, Kayoze Irani
Director: Syed Ahmad Afzal
Release dates 28 March 2014
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el5n252fAsg
Genre: Drama

Dishkiyon

Cast: Sunny Deol, Harman Baweja, Ayesha Khanna, Prashant Narayanan, Aditya Pancholi Director: Sanamjit Singh Talwar
Producers: Shilpa Shetty, Sunil Lulla Music : Palash Muchhal
Release date: 28 March 2014
Genre: Action
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1fhdUuoBAI

Cast: Kangna Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon, Mish Boyko, Jeffrey Chee Eng Ho, Marco Canadea, Guithob Joseph, Adri Doppenberg
Producers: Anurag Kashyap , Vikramaditya Motwane
Director: Vikas Bahl
Story and Screenplay: Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar, Parveez Sheikh
Dialogues: Anvita Dutt, Kangna Ranaut
Music Director: Amit Trivedi
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Parental Guidance: pole dancing, visit to kinky store, no explicit scenes,but some chatter about it.
Rating: ****
Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGC6vl3lzf0

(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!)

When I least expected, I saw a lovely, well made candid movie with excellent performances and charming story of self discovery. Irrespective of never liking Kangna Ranaut or her performances in any of her previous movies, I was surprised to have enjoyed and liked her and her character of Raani/Queen’s lovely progression from a naïve, insecure, simple girl to a strong, astute, self-confident woman! It’s a delightful chick flick, romantic comedy and ‘feel good’ movie worth watching.

Story starts off with simple and shy Raani, daughter of Halvai ( sweet shop owner) of middle class Delhi family getting dumped by her London- return condescending fiancé couple of days before the wedding. To escape the rejection and the desire to fulfill at least her dreams of a trip to Paris and Amsterdam, she sets off on her honeymoon trip alone!

Besides Kangnas’ acting, the director Vikas Bahl amazingly captures the stages of Raani’s insecure shyness to her confidence and strength through her clothes, her body language, her actions and decisions. Her metamorphosis is slow and realistic and not a dramatic transformation, which makes the story more endearing and legit.

Her adventures and mis-adventures, interesting moments, conversations, subtle comedy, tiny details, comical situations, and characteristic ‘desi’ practicality of the quirky character, all are refreshing. The movie has episodes of many subtle incidents which reflect small details of the character. Example, even in the happiest frenzy of mimicking others who are dancing and peeling and throwing off jackets, Raani peels off her sweater and instead of throwing prefers to stuff it into her purse, which she is holding on to while dancing!; Her innocent notion that Indians are good at kissing because actor Emraan Hashmi does it well in his movies!; or her naivety for shopping in a kinky store for travel souvenirs in Amsterdam! ; her desire to add red chilies and ginger garlic to Italian pasta; her explanation to the French guy, that the French toast she made is Indian French toast!; Her cool and confident stride out of Airport in a ‘made in India’ sleeveless kurti bought in Paris shows her transformation but yet in the boundaries of traditions!

Besides Kangana’s brilliant performance, the movie’s supporting cast is equally excellent. Lisa Haydon as Sexy Vijaya Lakshmi carves her performance into the story. The Italian flirtatious restaurateur, the cute Japanese, Russian and French roomie’s at Amsterdam’s hostel , the fiancé Vijay who acts like a jerk(Raj kumar Rao), the parents and chubby brother, all of them in their small parts are well cast and well performed.

The music and songs are good too, and the wedding rhythm of ‘thumakda’ reminded me of ‘chunari chunari’!

Queen falls into the category of movies which pleases the reviewer and critic; hence this movie gets the rare 4 stars! You walk out of the theater happy and continue to think of the characters pleasantly in the movie …

Bollywood Film Critic ™

Friday, March 14, 2014

Bollywood Movie Releases - March 2014