Dabangg 2010 Movie review

Director: Abhinav Singh Kashyup
Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha

Story: Corrupt cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) needs to bridge the distance with his step brother, Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan) and stepdad, Vinod Khanna, on the behest of his mother (Dimple Kapadia) even as he needs to set his own house in order by marrying the potter girl (Sonakshi Sinha) who refuses to succumb to his charms. And if that's not enough, there's the local goon, Sonu Sood and the crumbling administration of the small town that is craving his attention too. Can Chulbul Pandey deliver?

Movie Review Dabangg 2010 : Dabangg means fearless. Someone who doesn’t care a damn! As much as the film doesn’t care a damn for coming up with any innovative storyline. Like the intrepid Chulbul Pandey who tries to intermittently hide his soggy eyes behind his sunglasses, the film tries to camouflage its deficiency of substance with an abundance of Salman’s splendid style.

So what you have here is a masala potboiler with customary ingredients of two stepbrothers, a doting mother, a romance track, an item number, five action sequences, a topless Salman scene and a happy end. To cover up the conventionalism of his script, director Abhinav Singh Kashyup makes the action director and editor work overtime. And to make Salman Khan’s character look strong and supreme, every other character in the film is diluted or diminished.

So you have a dauntless corrupt cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) who fears nothing amongst family, friends or foes. Family comprises of stepbrother Makhi (Arbaaz Khan) and stepfather (Vinod Khanna) with whom he shares a love-hate relationship. Girlfriend happens to be village belle (Sonakshi Sinha) with whom he insists for a love-love relationship. Foe is the dubious goon (Sonu Sood) who will be ridiculed subsequently for his hole-some name Cheddi Singh and punched hollow in the climax.

Unarguably modeled on lines of Salman’s last hit Wanted, Dabangg is as much slick on stylized action, dialogue dramebaazi, a commanding protagonist and Salman’s signature dance steps. From his mortal combat entry sequence, to an introduction song, to the action-packed interval point (where he shields the heroine) to the climax tussle where he goes topless, Dabangg follows the same graph as Wanted in terms of its treatment. Unfortunately it fails to follow suit of Wanted in terms of its storytelling with a flat narrative.

One doesn’t expect an intellectual or inventive story from a Salman Khan film but the writing by Abhinav Kashyup and Dilip Shukla is pretty predictable and dated. Other than some domestic drama, a lighthearted love story and some heavy-duty action (where the same scoundrel-sidekick is mauled thrice), there isn’t much that happens in the first half. After his initial induction, the villain almost goes missing only to resurface in the middle of the second half. And while you expect a political conspiracy would initiate on his return, the film heads towards a routine climax.

Unlike sibling rivalry dramas like Gunga Jumna, Deewaar or Ram Lakhan where the younger brother is a competent contender to the elder, here Arbaaz ends up being a puny pawn before the glorified Salman. The potential drama between the two brothers is substituted by dishoom dishoom. Also Mahesh Manjrekar’s death was as needless as his existence in the plot.

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Movie Review Raavan 2010

Movie Review Raavan 2010
'Raavan' is a film so terrifically inept, on so many levels of direction, performance and intent, that it demands and receives its audience's full, stunned attention. 'Raavan' runs for more than two hours, and too much is corny, cramped, and vague. Mani Ratnam's epic retelling of an ancient tale is amalgamated and cut to create a stylised but characterless piece with some spectacular imagery. The film is too celebratory of Bollywood's good guy-versus-bad guy, buddy-buddy ethos to rise above the limitations of the genre, and too obsessed with its own seriousness to be a truly 'serious' film. In short, what should be a moving story with big stars and sweeping landscapes by one of the world's greatest directors is a huge let-down.

Mr Ratnam had the chance of a lifetime - to film one of the greatest Indian stories, and blew it by tinkering with it so much that not only is it no longer the story many of us know and love, it's also a version that can't even be considered on par. Mr Ratnam, who can make romantic poetry out of a battle among three men in the confines of a bridge, seems defeated, or at least defused, by this increase in scale. Raavan's shortcomings have less to do with Ratnam's orchestration of his ambitious tale and more to do with the Frankenstein hatchet job enacted against it. The characters Beera (Jr B), Ragini (Aishwarya) and Dev (Vikram) function less as flesh-and-blood figures than obtuse archetypes. The three look and act as if they know they belong in an epic. The compelling emotion that marks the best Mani Ratnam movies is AWOL. The pacing is choppy, with most of the human moments lopped off. Is Beera Munda really the good guy? Or should we cheer the rebellious opposition with the sunglasses? And what the heck is a Munda? Is he related to Bisra Munda? Does he suffer from vocal cord paralysis? Was he inspired by Mukesh Rishi in 'Gunda'?

To say that Abhishek Bachchan hams it up is a gross understatement - he seems right out of a Kanti Shah film, a tinier version of Lambu Aata to be precise. Cringe-worthy. When she's not falling for the umpteenth time on a tree branch, or dancing awkwardly for Vikram, Aishwarya Rai either whines and yelps in a migraine-inducing tone, or stares vacantly, arching her eyebrows curiously. Her character, an outrageous collection of Hindi film heroine cliches would make even Sneha Ullal and Meghna Kothari blush. Vikram more or less sleepwalks as he has little to do, the man is overshadowed by the likes of Ravi Kissen. If it weren't all frustrating enough already, Vikram and Aishwarya indulge in an unintentionally funny seduction number that makes the ghastly Vikram and Shriya song "Meow Meow" in 'Kanthaswamy' seem like a beautiful masque. Mr Ratnam probably expected that Beera's battle with his demons would drive the movie, but unfortunately his own hackneyed script constantly gets in the way.

'Raavan' should really have been a tech demo. Manikandan and Santosh Sivan's cinematography is eye popping, the art direction and set pieces will blow you away. The film is drenched in atmosphere - you can't watch a frame of it without feeling that it has been generations since Bollywood tackled anything on this scale. It all goes to a waste as Mr Ratnam superficially glosses over what should have been the most interesting parts of the story to get to trite drama and stylized violence. A character-driven story like this should probably have spent more time on the characters and less time on computer wizardry. To top it all there's the flamboyantly overdone finalé on a suspension bridge, complete with surging musical crescendos and tears, it rings false given the earnest qualities exhibited in other Mani Ratnam films. Oscar winner AR Rahman's underwhelming score doesn't translate too well on the big screen, although Gulzar's lyrics stand out. Choreographer Ganesh Acharya makes a great cameo in 'Kata Kata'.

'Raavan' is a crushing disappointment. You will either be frustrated with its asymmetrical and manipulative storytelling or be captivated by the film's staggering nihility. As an alternative I recommend Mithun Charaborty's 'Teesra Kaun', a film packed with better written characters and a lead hero (Chunky Pande) who invokes raucous laughter as intended.

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Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai : Movie Review

Movie Review Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai 2010

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ruslaan Mumtaz
Direction: Milap Zaveri
Genre: Romantic comedy/ Fantasy
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They say men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But what happens when a man from Earth meets a woman from Venus!

Milap Zaveri’s breezy rom-com begins with a spoof on the Hindi film industry just like Om Shanti Om with Riteish playing SRK, Vishal Malhotra playing Shreyas Talpade and Ruslaan Mumtaz playing a superstar ‘Desh’ just the way Deepika Padukone played ‘Shantipriya’. OSO’s maker Farah Khan also makes an impressive cameo as she is the director who Rajesh Parekh (Riteish) and Kaushal (Vishal) assist.

24 year old Rajesh and best friend Kaushal are perpetual losers as both are kind of chick repellants. Why, because Rajesh is too simple and Kaushal too horny. The two keep envying Desh’s popularity and his craze amongst the female population. One fine night, a gorgeous girl falls from the sky and lands straight into Rajesh’s arms! To everyone’s surprise the girl (Jacqueline) happens to be from Venus whose mission is to find her true love on earth, just like Rajesh.

Riteish, Vishal and Jacqueline all three render impressive performances and are the saving grace of the film. Where Riteish and Vishal have perfect comic timing, Jacqueline looks every bit a woman from Venus. She is gorgeous, pleasant and a confident performer. There is no naivety in her performance. Her Hindi too is surprisingly decent.

What disappoints is the sloppy script. The idea between alien-human love is interesting but the story doesn’t materialize as we would expect. The dialogues are corny, characters clichéd and the genre confused. There are ample of heavy romantic cheesy lines but no interesting romance. The actors have good comic timing but there are no great humorous punches in the script itself for them to enact. Also the director gives undue space and time for supporting actors instead of focusing on his lead pair which seems futile.

Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and Sajjid Khan also play cameos as they talk about superstar Desh just the way they did in spoke about Farhan in Luck By Chance. Again nothing new there!



Making Ruslaan Mumtaz as the superstar of Bollywood in the film too seems like a bad idea. The actor looks cute and acts well but doesn’t look the character he plays, as off screen, he himself is a newcomer and is thus unable to display the aura of a superstar.

The film had the potential to be better but disappoints

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Phoonk 2 Movie Review

Movie Review Phoonk 2 ( 2010 )

Director: Milind GadagkarStar
Cast: Neeru Bajwa, Sudeep, Amruta Khanvilkar, Ahsaas Channa, Rishabh Jain, Anu Ansari, Ashwini Kalsekar, Amit Sadh, Ganesh Yadav, Zakir Hussain, Vikas Srivastav, Rakesh Raj, Chyan Trivedi, Jeeva

‘Phoonk 2’ is the sequel of the flick ‘Phoonk’ by Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) which got released in 2008. Though, ‘Phoonk’ was a total failure in the box office and failed to give even the slightest panic to the audience. Now, RGV’s all hopes are set to ‘Phoonk 2’.

‘Phoonk’ was all about black magic done by a female Madhu to traumatize the family of Rajiv (Sudeep), a businessman. The movie ended with the death of Madhu. The sequel ‘Phoonk2’ tells the story of Madhu’s evil spirit returning back to haunt the family and take her revenge from Rajiv.

In ‘Phoonk 2’, Rajiv (Sudeep) shifts to a new place and is immersed in his construction business and his kids Raksha (Ahsaas Channa) and Rohan (Rishabh Jain) are also happy with the new place which is surrounded with beach and woods. The horror in their life starts when the kids find a doll in the woods which they carry back home. Thus, the evil spirit of Madhu returns into the doll to haunt and torment Rajiv (Sudeep),his wife Arati (Amruta Khanvilkar) and his beloved children Raksha and Rohan.


Rajiv could not stand the torture that his family gets to face because of Madhu. Madhu’s evil spirit leaves no stones unturned to smite Rajiv’s family to take its revenge. Manja (Zakir Hussain), was the only man who could have helped Rajiv but Madhu’s spook didn’t spare him either. The family suffers in a gruesome and cruel way in the hands of the evil. The spirit of Madhu is shown far more dangerous than she was before when alive. She became more rebellious and filled with animalism. She is brutal, dangerous and cruel and unforgiving. The family got trapped in the evil spirit’s woven trap and the movie shows how a living evil person can be more rebellious and powerful in evil manners after death. The spirit becomes invincible which the family fails to overcome. The evil spirit brings Rajiv to the verge where he has to choose to save a loved one by sacrificing the other.

Let the climax of the movie be a secret which will give answers to as to how do Rajiv cope with the situation, did his family members survived? This can be found out only in the theatres.

The story of the movie has been penned down and directed by Milind Gadagkar who is a debutant. The movie has been produced by P. Chandrashekhar and Prashant Burra. The flick is presented by Zed Pictures and Sarthak Movies. The flick’s music is by Dharam and Sandeep.

The movie has a lot of scenes which has shown sheer violence, bloodshed and horror. Disfigured bodies have been shown to produce the scare and disturbing sequences of death. People who have heart ailments can stay away from the theatres as there are a lot of disturbing scenes and sequences in the movie.

Horror genre is a chancy venture. However, it cannot be denied that there are many Horror genre hits in both Bollywood and Hollywood. Indian horror movies like 'Bees Sal Baad' and 'Raaz'(Part 1) with a solid script, good cinematography and direction have successfully given goose bumps to the audiences. The fate of ‘Phoonk 2’ depends on the audience now.

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