[Movie Review] Vishwaroop: Kamal Haasan’s Melody!

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah
Director: Kamal Haasan
Genre: Comedy, Action

It starts with Kamal Haasan teaching Kathak to his pupils, middles with Kamal Haasan in Afghanistan along with a group of Mujahedeen and ends with Kamal Haasan saving the whole of New York City. This is a platform to show how dynamic a person can be, for Kamal Haasan is the actor, writer and director of the mega budgeted Vishwaroop and trust me, he is there in every frame of this movie; read again, every frame!

At one second he is down on the ground, begging his captors to set him free and the very  next second, he is making pulp out of their brains, beating them like there is no tomorrow. That is how Vishwanathan (Kamal Hassan) is, indestructible yet polite, humorous yet intense. 

On the other hand, Dr Nirupama (Pooja Kumar), a nuclear oncologist weds Vishwanathan for the sake of green card and quickly assumes that things are off the charts with her husband and thus, hires a personal detective to investigate him. What leads, is an inconsistent narrative jumping from flashbacks to present in an unconventional manner.

Terrorism has been tackled in countless Bollywood affairs before, but it is the context of Vishwaroop that makes it stand out in this horde. The execution, though erratic, is unflinching and compromises not a single shred of substance. Though, in the latter half of the movie, it loses the brainpowers and succumbs to gaping plot holes for the sake of delivering unabashed action sequences. But it is one thing that a thriller should always be, popcorn crackling entertainment.

And on top of that, the climax is disastrous. Seriously, A Faraday shield? What was all the setup for? To snatch a hurried climax of a movie that well exceeds its time frame with meaningless conversations and unnecessary characters speaking languages that one can’t understand. When being translated, you are already sighing for not being able to comprehend it in the first place.

As one realizes the countless times Haasan’s name been used in this review, one must realize that if not for Haasan, this movie would have been lost in the theatres without anybody knowing about it.  He gives an electrifying performance and carries the movie single handedly while the characters around him act like buffoons and behave like dumb retards on a runaway from an asylum.

What is unintentionally sidesplitting is the appearance of the villain, Omar (Rahul Bose). It is indeed a pity to see such a capable actor being reduced to nothing due to hysterical makeup and a terrible grin; wait, this grin was in the scripts, right? Actually, the problem is that the expressions never change; no, not even for a minute!

To sum the case; leave aside the morality take, leave aside the religious propaganda and leave aside the crude remarks splashed on the movie, this is semi-solid entertainment. It may get dumb by the end, but blah, who cares!

(first published in www.udaipurtimes.com)

[Movie Review] David: Style has a new name!

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vinay Varmani, Vikram, Tabu, Isha sharwani
Director: Bejoy Nambiar
Genre: Crime, Drama

Rain falls gently; Vinay Varmani’s David stands towering, with braided hair and a hockey stick in his hand. Four goons dash towards him while a powerhouse track plays in the background and with gorgeous slo-mo sequences, our angst ridden protagonist bashes them unapologetically. You want to know the core flavor of David? It’s style!

The David of 1975 (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is the right hand of the feared Mafia in London. The story further complicates when he stumbles upon secrets that were not known to him and all together falls for Mafia Ghani’s daughter as in a paper book tragedy.

Vinay Varmani’s David is an aspiring guitarist/singer in a politically boiling Mumbai of 1999. He gets his big break but the dream falters and crumbles as his devout catholic father faces humiliation at the hands of a Hindu religious group.

The third David (Vikram) is a fisherman in Goa, 2010, who faces inner conflicts as the girl who he loves madly, Roma (Isha Sharwani), is about to tie knot with his best buddy in 10 days.

It is in the enthralling sense of audio and visual aesthetics, in which the heart of David lies. The way with which Bejoy Nambiar directs this saga is spellbinding and one needs to hold his jaw so as to stop it from falling on the floor time and again.

Be it the smashing of heads on the folk tunes of Goa or the B&W aura of the story set in London, Bejoy Nambiar shows a maddening passion in portraying them.


While there are some scenes you just can’t forget (viz, Neil Nitin Mukesh’s breathtaking entry), some of the sequences seems to stretch till eternity; especially Vikram’s story, which is sans of any purpose and connotation.  The pure aimlessness of this tale acts like a perfect lullaby and it feels overstretched and completely pointless.

What sweeps you off your feet is Neil Nitin Mukesh’s David. The way he walks, the way he talks, the way he fires and the way his arc unfolds, one word, mind-blowing! Watch it when an advisor darkly utters to him, “Tere aankhon mein David, bahut hi ranjh aur takleef hai!” And tell me if you don’t have Goosebumps all over your arms!

When all could have been the dawning of a masterpiece for David, it is the inconsistent pacing and the dingy climax that pulls away some of the punches. And yes, what was the need to connect the dots between various eras? A consistent theme would have done the same job. A lesson learned I guess.


David is experimental cine-making that dares to blow conventions to winds with its stunning cinematography but ultimately leaves you cold. It takes two and a half hour to arrive at a conclusion that regardless of all the flair and elegance wrapped up on its sleeves, feels like a vanity fair.

(first published in www.udaipurtimes.com)

[Movie Review] Race 2: The Horse that Limped

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor, Ameesha Patel
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Genre: Action, Thriller.

At one of the high octane moments in the movie, a resentful character says that, “Revenge is a dish best served cold”. Only if Race 2 would have been anything more than being cold, the end results would not have been so deadpan mediocre.  

To one’s horror, it felt like the intermission marked the tipping point of the thinking hats of the director duo Abbas-Mustan. After that, everything went bananas! Seriously, this is what the hype was for? All that glamour and booze and tactics led to this; an incredibly loud and trashy dose of entertainment? But mind you! The word used is ‘entertainment’.

Don’t get me wrong! By no means is Race 2 an utter disappointment. How can it be? It had two haughty hunks, three steaming darlings and plenty of cars and yachts and bikes and…Err, robbery, cage fighting, chasing sequences, exotic locations and countless other stuff on which money was flushed away. Pity on those minds; all a thriller needs is a taut script, not a tsunami of money! Profound, eh?


Somewhere at the end of the movie, you wish that writers had a wince of quirkiness or laid more emphasis on the storyline of Race 2. Sounds rough? Read! After losing someone close to his heart, Ranveer (Saif Ali Khan) plans revenge against the mafia king Arman Malik (John Abraham) while concurrently losing his heart to his half-sister Aleena (Deepika Padukone). Where does Omisha (Jacqueline Fernandez) fit in the frame? Well, she is the sweetheart of Arman Malik with a bizarre fondness for the word ‘Kamina’!
And the party is not yet over as we have the fruit-guy, RD (Anil Kapoor) who readily pops the cherry of his nitwit assistant Cherry (Ameesha Patel) and swings off vile one-liners. 

If only Saif Ali Khan had not saved the day, Race 2 would have crumbled long before the climax came. The glamour at some portions punched away the need for a basic plotline and the exotic sites spread over your eyes and sheath the illogicality of the entire affair. The females, plastic they may be, added such beauty on screen that somehow, somewhere, style thumped over substance with pride. John Abraham in his evil-avatar was nothing short of menacing with his grimaces and winks smeared across the rich European backgrounds.

To cut the deal, if one says that Race 2 was pointless; trust me that would be an understatement. It was drenched in absurdity with characters wearing suits that fitted their toned bodies as aptly as the hideous makeup of a clown in a circus. Race 2 was a castle of cards that fell on a single stroke of smart viewing!

(first published in www.udaipurtimes.com)

[Movie Review] Akaash Vani: Chicken Soup for Lovers!

Cast: Kartik Tiwari, Nusrat Bharucha

Director: Luv Ranjan

Genre: Romance, Drama

Movie Reviewed at: PVR, Udaipur.

Sigh! Love stories, they always start in a decent fashion; garden-fresh and effervescent. But somehow, most of them end up being lost in a maze with the message becoming convoluted and lost in the layers till the end credits roll down. Same is the case with Luv Ranjan’s second outing as a director, Akaash Vani.

Back in 2011, Luv Ranjan served us a scintillating and offbeat tale on relationships, Pyaar Ka Punchnaama; come 2013, the director is back again, with the rusted formula of love and a bold attempt against the society’s scheme of marriage. So, does the fairylike charm and idiosyncrasy of the cult hit ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnaama’ is back? Well, sadly, no.

A happy-go-lucky guy, Akaash (Kartik Tiwari) and a doey-eyed college girl, Vani (Nusrat Bharucha) were destined to be lovers. They hang about in cafeterias, sneak-peak into each other’s eyes during lectures and croon melancholic shayaris for each other. But, as always, fate intervenes and the duo splits after their college is over. It then takes an overly stretched second hour of the movie to reunite the couple and to break the shackles of society we live in. 

Without venturing into the minuteness of plot details, on the surface, Akaash Vani screams against the influence of the society in the marital decision of their offspring. The chronicle is kept bright and jovial in the first hour and the heavy medication is kept in store for the second hour of the movie. It is then and there only when the movie stumbles and then completely goes down the hill.


If only the script had been a little concrete rather than being this downtrodden, this would have been a complete crackling affair. I mean, really? A well-educated girl, dwelling in an urban area would steep so low so as to come under the axe of mental torture by his ruthless husband and not even complain? Sounds totally unconvincing! 

It is of utmost importance in a romantic flick that the chemistry remains sizzling. Brace yourselves for the dose as the pair was nothing short of perfect. There was no doubt that by the end, if only the sentimentality would have been reduced, this one could have been pulled off entirely by the charm of Kartik Tiwari and Nusrat Bharucha alone.  

Akaash Vani is a desi Nicholas Spark’s novel material which is accentuated by unwanted pulpiness and mushiness. If you are in love, rest assured, you’ll come out pacified. If not, well, you can always wait for the DVD release. 

(First published in www.udaipurtimes.com)