Paranthe Wali Gali
Jan 17, 2014
Cast: Anuj Saxena, Neha Pawar
Direction: Sachin Gupta
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Story: A struggling theatre actor and a young girl, 'mad over paranthas', bump into each other in the famous paranthe wali gali of old Delhi and talk each other into fulfilling their dreams.
Review: Playwright and theatre director Sachin Gupta's debut film with an interesting title offers a fresh perspective on life, ambition and our ability to hit back harder when life hits you hard. Very rarely do films focus on simple and light-hearted everyday conversation. Gupta brings that aspect to the forefront with the beautiful backdrop of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi (orDelhi-6, thanks to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra).
We also liked the fact that though based on the hero's love for theatre, most songs and scenes don't look theatrical. Gupta keeps it real with locations, performances, interactions. While the sight of scrumptious paranthas and pickle leave you salivating, lack of a concrete plot coupled with the film's stagnant pace also unfortunately leave you hungry and tired.
Plus, the story lacks direction; it wanders around aimlessly, lacking continuity and failing to connect with the audience. This makes you question the motive of the film. For example, the protagonist Maulik ( Anuj Saxena), a theatre actor/director, who struggles to get himself a show, goes on and on about his passion for 'theatre', but his actions do not back his words. We don't feel for his character or his love for the art, which is the biggest drawback of the film. Saxena is a tad too understated for his character.
On the contrary, his young heroine ( Neha Pawar), who plays a loud Punjaban, tries to imitate Anushka Sharma and ends up looking over-animated in most scenes. She gets better when she's herself. The lead actors have good screen presence but need to undergo voice modulation for their pitch stays constant. The chemistry between the two doesn't work either. Supporting actors are pleasant, but don't add much to the proceedings. The abrupt climax doesn't live up to the strong initial build-up either.
Gupta's feel-good parantha lacks spice and makkhan.
Jan 17, 2014
Cast: Anuj Saxena, Neha Pawar
Direction: Sachin Gupta
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Story: A struggling theatre actor and a young girl, 'mad over paranthas', bump into each other in the famous paranthe wali gali of old Delhi and talk each other into fulfilling their dreams.
Review: Playwright and theatre director Sachin Gupta's debut film with an interesting title offers a fresh perspective on life, ambition and our ability to hit back harder when life hits you hard. Very rarely do films focus on simple and light-hearted everyday conversation. Gupta brings that aspect to the forefront with the beautiful backdrop of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi (orDelhi-6, thanks to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra).
We also liked the fact that though based on the hero's love for theatre, most songs and scenes don't look theatrical. Gupta keeps it real with locations, performances, interactions. While the sight of scrumptious paranthas and pickle leave you salivating, lack of a concrete plot coupled with the film's stagnant pace also unfortunately leave you hungry and tired.
Plus, the story lacks direction; it wanders around aimlessly, lacking continuity and failing to connect with the audience. This makes you question the motive of the film. For example, the protagonist Maulik ( Anuj Saxena), a theatre actor/director, who struggles to get himself a show, goes on and on about his passion for 'theatre', but his actions do not back his words. We don't feel for his character or his love for the art, which is the biggest drawback of the film. Saxena is a tad too understated for his character.
On the contrary, his young heroine ( Neha Pawar), who plays a loud Punjaban, tries to imitate Anushka Sharma and ends up looking over-animated in most scenes. She gets better when she's herself. The lead actors have good screen presence but need to undergo voice modulation for their pitch stays constant. The chemistry between the two doesn't work either. Supporting actors are pleasant, but don't add much to the proceedings. The abrupt climax doesn't live up to the strong initial build-up either.
Gupta's feel-good parantha lacks spice and makkhan.
Karle Pyaar Karle
Jan 17, 2014
Cast: Shiv Darshan, Hasleen Kaur, Aham Sharma
Direction: Rajesh Pandey
Genre: Romance
Duration: 2 hours 23 minutes
Story: Separated childhood friends Kabir and Preet meet after a decade and find themselves drawn to one another. They play truth or dare games that turn out to be perilously dangerous.
Review: Karle Pyaar Karle (KPK) is cinema born in the '80s, rechristened in 2014. While the film has been lavishly mounted because it supports Bollywood's nepotism, practice of a producer (Suneel Darshan) making a show reel for his son ( Shiv Darshan), scant respect is paid to even trying to give you a halfway decent story with contemporary treatment. Instead, you are introduced to Shiv's (Kabir) skills to ride, fight, dance, romance and cry in that order.
Keeping him company is a girl Hasleen (Preet). Borrowing other characters like a group of bad boys, some nerds and some more scantily clad girls straight out of 1970s-80s cinema, the film has a string of artificially created situations - like a bike ride, a fight, a lap-dance, a kiss, all strung together with one obvious objective. 'Hello - please meet my son. He has decided to become an actor. And he needs to show you what he is capable of while you stay captive. Also while you fidget in your seat, please check out the new girl we chose for him to romance. She can parade in a bikini, sing, dance and mouth some audacious lines.'
Dialogue like 'either you have *shit in your b*m or dum in your b*m*' make you cringe. The film is full of cliches of mainstream cinema. And the characters, like the parents of the boy, the quiet suffering mother of the girl, the villain (DG) who owns a meat factory, his spoilt son (Jazz), the son's sidekick (Goldie), are caricatures that have been a part of Bollywood potboilers for eons. It's time to bury these fast and furiously, rather than attempt to glorify them like KPK does.
For a debut, Shiv displays a tiny spark. Hasleen shows spunk.
Jan 17, 2014
Cast: Shiv Darshan, Hasleen Kaur, Aham Sharma
Direction: Rajesh Pandey
Genre: Romance
Duration: 2 hours 23 minutes
Story: Separated childhood friends Kabir and Preet meet after a decade and find themselves drawn to one another. They play truth or dare games that turn out to be perilously dangerous.
Review: Karle Pyaar Karle (KPK) is cinema born in the '80s, rechristened in 2014. While the film has been lavishly mounted because it supports Bollywood's nepotism, practice of a producer (Suneel Darshan) making a show reel for his son ( Shiv Darshan), scant respect is paid to even trying to give you a halfway decent story with contemporary treatment. Instead, you are introduced to Shiv's (Kabir) skills to ride, fight, dance, romance and cry in that order.
Keeping him company is a girl Hasleen (Preet). Borrowing other characters like a group of bad boys, some nerds and some more scantily clad girls straight out of 1970s-80s cinema, the film has a string of artificially created situations - like a bike ride, a fight, a lap-dance, a kiss, all strung together with one obvious objective. 'Hello - please meet my son. He has decided to become an actor. And he needs to show you what he is capable of while you stay captive. Also while you fidget in your seat, please check out the new girl we chose for him to romance. She can parade in a bikini, sing, dance and mouth some audacious lines.'
Dialogue like 'either you have *shit in your b*m or dum in your b*m*' make you cringe. The film is full of cliches of mainstream cinema. And the characters, like the parents of the boy, the quiet suffering mother of the girl, the villain (DG) who owns a meat factory, his spoilt son (Jazz), the son's sidekick (Goldie), are caricatures that have been a part of Bollywood potboilers for eons. It's time to bury these fast and furiously, rather than attempt to glorify them like KPK does.
For a debut, Shiv displays a tiny spark. Hasleen shows spunk.
Miss Lovely
January 17,2014
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Niharika Singh, Anil George, Menaka Lalwani, Zeena Bhatia
Direction: Ashim Ahluwalia
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 53 minutes
Story: A sensational look at the sleazy C-grade cinema of sex, horror and smut in the Mumbai of 80s. And all its naked truths.
Review: Picture this. A bunch of ready-to-titillate starlets, crude men waiting to pull out their 'pistols', rubber-faced monsters melting in blood, cranky beds on tawdry sets, shaky hand-held cameras and shady lighting. A few minutes later some loud moans and mews. Ahh! Lights, camera and crude carnal pleasures!
'Miss Lovely', unfolds with this premise, set in the Mumbai of 1980's where sleazy, sex-horror films are mass-churned by the thriving C-grade movie industry, with depraved delight and unchaste ambitions. The strategy is simple. Vicky Duggal (Anil) and his production team (starlets need spot boys too!) shoots x-rated films in dozens, and then pimps the reels. His inglorious clientele (read: sexual predators) demand just one thing - besharam beauties that bare all. And Vicky promises to deliver 'wholesome' masterpieces with "Doh ghanto mein doh hazaar thrills!"
His younger bro, Sonu (Nawazuddin), one with a conscience, is unwillingly sucked into Vicky's filthy world of 'sex, lies and videotapes'. Sonu meets wannabe actress Pinky (Niharika) and falls in love; vowing to launch her in a romantic film called 'Miss Lovely' and make her a big star. Sweet love! But hereon, the story gets darker and murkier. Sonu pines for his sweetheart and Vicky plots for millions. And beneath the dirty sheets they both find a body of lies, deceit and disclosure. And their dreams blur into the 'blueprint' of their own shady designs.
Documentary filmmaker Ahluwalia has shot this film in a docu-drama style, with retro-arty feel, taking you into a blast from the past of a bygone era of 'Purana Mandirs' and 'Bandh Darwazas'.Erotic to some, laughable to others. In a bold attempt, he's even used real footage of 80's C-grade films to add raunchiness to his pulpy fiction. Even better, some of the 'extras' are real actors from Bollywood's underbelly. The film (which has done the rounds of various international film festivals), has expletives, bare (blurred) bosoms and background sounds that adds heaviness to the moods and makings of an interesting story. He uncompromisingly scores at recreating that.
But the plot unfolds at a lethargic pace, with long-drawn scenes filled in with few dialogues. Some crucial scenes lack the emotional depth and connect you'd expect, inhibiting us from empathising with the protagonists. Nawazuddin shines brilliantly even in the smoky shadows of this sexploitative world, Niharika and Anil play their parts well. The film is stylishly sleazy, that's what works for it. Watch it for a retro-ride into the naked innards of a soft-porn world and its bared bosoms.
January 17,2014
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Niharika Singh, Anil George, Menaka Lalwani, Zeena Bhatia
Direction: Ashim Ahluwalia
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 53 minutes
Story: A sensational look at the sleazy C-grade cinema of sex, horror and smut in the Mumbai of 80s. And all its naked truths.
Review: Picture this. A bunch of ready-to-titillate starlets, crude men waiting to pull out their 'pistols', rubber-faced monsters melting in blood, cranky beds on tawdry sets, shaky hand-held cameras and shady lighting. A few minutes later some loud moans and mews. Ahh! Lights, camera and crude carnal pleasures!
'Miss Lovely', unfolds with this premise, set in the Mumbai of 1980's where sleazy, sex-horror films are mass-churned by the thriving C-grade movie industry, with depraved delight and unchaste ambitions. The strategy is simple. Vicky Duggal (Anil) and his production team (starlets need spot boys too!) shoots x-rated films in dozens, and then pimps the reels. His inglorious clientele (read: sexual predators) demand just one thing - besharam beauties that bare all. And Vicky promises to deliver 'wholesome' masterpieces with "Doh ghanto mein doh hazaar thrills!"
His younger bro, Sonu (Nawazuddin), one with a conscience, is unwillingly sucked into Vicky's filthy world of 'sex, lies and videotapes'. Sonu meets wannabe actress Pinky (Niharika) and falls in love; vowing to launch her in a romantic film called 'Miss Lovely' and make her a big star. Sweet love! But hereon, the story gets darker and murkier. Sonu pines for his sweetheart and Vicky plots for millions. And beneath the dirty sheets they both find a body of lies, deceit and disclosure. And their dreams blur into the 'blueprint' of their own shady designs.
Documentary filmmaker Ahluwalia has shot this film in a docu-drama style, with retro-arty feel, taking you into a blast from the past of a bygone era of 'Purana Mandirs' and 'Bandh Darwazas'.Erotic to some, laughable to others. In a bold attempt, he's even used real footage of 80's C-grade films to add raunchiness to his pulpy fiction. Even better, some of the 'extras' are real actors from Bollywood's underbelly. The film (which has done the rounds of various international film festivals), has expletives, bare (blurred) bosoms and background sounds that adds heaviness to the moods and makings of an interesting story. He uncompromisingly scores at recreating that.
But the plot unfolds at a lethargic pace, with long-drawn scenes filled in with few dialogues. Some crucial scenes lack the emotional depth and connect you'd expect, inhibiting us from empathising with the protagonists. Nawazuddin shines brilliantly even in the smoky shadows of this sexploitative world, Niharika and Anil play their parts well. The film is stylishly sleazy, that's what works for it. Watch it for a retro-ride into the naked innards of a soft-porn world and its bared bosoms.
Yaariyan is a disappointment :
January 10, 2014
Yaariyan
Director: Divya Khosla Kumar
Cast: Himansh Kohli, Dev Sharma, Serah Singh, Rakul Preet Singh, Nicole Faria, Evelyn Sharma, Gulshan Grover
The movie opens to a scene of a play in motion, one that's telling the story of Indo-Pak war. When suddenly there's a scene that requires "Ma", only "Ma" is busy kissing her boyfriend backstage.
Such is the comedy. Pretty immature. It is to save your from the torture of watching this movie that reviewers like myself are writing this. I give half a star to the movie, like I do to most, purely for the effort of making the film.
Yaariyan is an entirely disappointing film. The characters are flawed, and the acting is fake. There's not story or plot in the film. This college in Sikkim has five young kids. The boys just have the one dream of gaining access to the girls' hostel and kissing a girl. Mind you, before heading out there, the hero even takes the permission of his aunt and the girls' hostel's warden. Trouble comes in the form of a company wanting to build a casino on the spot where the college now stands. The challenge is to win five competitions, between the Australians and the college kids.
Lots of action, lost of attempt to create drama, and not-so-great dialogues take over the movie.
Avoid watching the film.
January 10, 2014
Yaariyan
Director: Divya Khosla Kumar
Cast: Himansh Kohli, Dev Sharma, Serah Singh, Rakul Preet Singh, Nicole Faria, Evelyn Sharma, Gulshan Grover
The movie opens to a scene of a play in motion, one that's telling the story of Indo-Pak war. When suddenly there's a scene that requires "Ma", only "Ma" is busy kissing her boyfriend backstage.
Such is the comedy. Pretty immature. It is to save your from the torture of watching this movie that reviewers like myself are writing this. I give half a star to the movie, like I do to most, purely for the effort of making the film.
Yaariyan is an entirely disappointing film. The characters are flawed, and the acting is fake. There's not story or plot in the film. This college in Sikkim has five young kids. The boys just have the one dream of gaining access to the girls' hostel and kissing a girl. Mind you, before heading out there, the hero even takes the permission of his aunt and the girls' hostel's warden. Trouble comes in the form of a company wanting to build a casino on the spot where the college now stands. The challenge is to win five competitions, between the Australians and the college kids.
Lots of action, lost of attempt to create drama, and not-so-great dialogues take over the movie.
Avoid watching the film.