'Titli' - Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Titli'

Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Dark Chocolate'

Expectations:

Before the arrival of a multiplex era, our Hindi film industry was mostly divided into three different styles of film making. The majority part was dominated by the popular entertaining cinema and a niche part belong to the artistic type of films, followed by a small sect of films which were known as the middle of the road type of realistic films. The whole scenario started to change with the arrival of the multiplex era and films like ‘Satya’, ‘Chandni Bar’, ‘Bandit Queen’ and others. These movies had a realistic cinema as its core content, but were presented in an engaging manner due to which they managed to rake in decent box office numbers. The success of such films inspired more film makers like Anuraag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and others to churn out more hard hitting realistic type of films which also catered the international film festivals. In recent times, we witnessed many big banners known for making out and out commercial money spinners venturing into the small world of quality based films and the latest to join them is ‘Yash Raj Banner’ with their small offering known as ‘Titli’. This movie has already been screened at prestigious film festivals and finally witnesses its local release. Thus, let’s find out whether this new attempt by the ‘YRF’ banner will add as a new milestone in our Hindi cinema or might end up yet another good concept based film, which is made only to lure the film festival audiences. 

Story:

‘Titli’ is a story of Titli (Shashank Arora) and his brothers (Ranvir Shorey and Amit Sial). The trio follows their family business of carjacking and other criminal acts. Titli wants to leave his brothers and follow his own dream of managing a parking area in a popular mall. But, his brothers have other plans for him due to which they get him married to Neelu (Shivani Raghuvanshi), so that they can add her also in their criminal activities. In short span, Titli comes to know that Neelu has her own dark secret and what happens next is what the entire film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The story is something different and has lots of twist and turns attached to it. The narrative part in the first half is nail biting followed by a hard hitting but bit slow second half. There are some fantastic scenes like Ranvir trashing Shashank over money followed by him basing a delivery guy in front of his family, the brothers seeking Shivani’s hand for marriage, Shanshak and Shivani meeting Ranvir’s wife and many more which manages to engage you. Then there are some dark, disturbing and hard-hitting scenes like Shashank and Shivani’s first crime act which scares her drastically, Shashank and Shivani’s bed room scenes followed by the domestic violence out there, Shashank taking Shivani to meet her lover, Shashank fracturing Shivani’s hand and few more. It will take time for a viewer to forget these disturbing images. On the flip side, there are a few scenes involving Shashank’s change of heart, which demands more explanation followed by bit, slow screenplay in the middle part of the film. Right from the visual similarities in all the three brothers to the minor part of their personal lives (Ranvir’s obsession for good food, Amit’s silent homosexual love track, etc) to the house location which looks like a rotten hell, ‘Titli’ has some of the finest and minute detailing one could see in the recent times. Similarly, the cinematography is of top notch.

Music & Direction:

The background music by Karan Gaur acts like an additional screenplay in the film.

Director Kanu Behl who co-write and assisted director Dibakar Banerjee in ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ manages to create a huge impact with his directorial debut. Its due to Kanu’s fine sensibilities one tends to feel the skin of each and every character in the film. Kudos to his way of presenting this hard hitting film in such an engaging manner and ending it in such a way that it justifies the association of the ‘YRF’ banner which is mostly known for making romantic films. The movie seems like quenching the thirst of all good and meaningful movie lovers.

Performances

It’s good to see Ranvir Shorey back in such an intense role. The makers have extracted the potentiality of a fine actor. Shivani Raghivanshi is highly impressive and has a bright future. Shashank Arora does his part with total grace. The dilemma inside his head gets totally visible on his face due to his natural acting. Amit Sial, Lalit Behl and Prashant Singh lends good support.

So bol meri 'Filmi Khopdi' iss film mein kitna hain Dum???(Spoiler Alert)

Dum??? Well, if you love good, meaningful cinema then this movie has lots and lots of dum for you. The masses might shy away from this movie, but for others, it gives you the feeling of watching something different, something good and something meaningful which ends up being a must watch type of film. The movie and its happenings will haunt you for a long time. Way back in the 90’s ‘Yash Raj’ presented a violent love story in the form of ‘Darr’ and after almost two decades, they give us one of the most unusual love story which is like a dark chocolate, which despite of being bitter is still cherished only by all those who have elegant taste of fine stuffs. 

Ratings - 4*/5

'Main Aur Charles' - Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Main Aur Charles'

Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'The News Hour Debate..'

Expectations:

Our Hindi film maker’s fascination towards real life criminals have helped them carve some great real life criminals in their films. Pran saab’s impersonation of dacoit Raaka, Amjad Khan and Vinod Khanna essaying characters like Gabbar and Jabbar Singh or Amitabh Bachchan are few among the various examples where, iconic film characters were etched based on the real life criminals. Though, there were some striking references in films like ‘D-Day’, ‘Aakhen’, ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai’ and many more films. Few filmmakers tried to attempt biopic type of films in the form of ‘Godmother’, ‘Pan Singh Tomar’, etc and enhanced the level of our Hindi cinema. The latest to join them is ‘Main Aur Charles’ which is inspired by a real life happening related to international serial killer Gurmukh Shobraj who is popularly known as Charles Shobraj. The promos look exciting and Randeep Hooda, in terms of looks has a striking resemblance with its main protagonist. So let’s find out whether ‘Main Aur Charles’ will manage to give us one more good film based on the real life happenings of a criminal or might end up being just a normal film trying to cash in over the popularity of the famous criminal.

Story:

‘Main Aur Charles’ is a story of Charles (Randeep Hooda) a con man cum serial killer who escapes from one of the highest guarded prison cell from India. Police inspector Amod Kanth (Adil Hussain) and his team starts to investigate the whole matter and starts hunting for Charles in every corner of the country. Charles is supported by various people consisting of Richard (Alexx O’Neil), Liz (Mandana Karimi), Mira (Richa Chadda) and others. On the other end, Mumbai police appoints Inspector Joshi (Shanu Dev) to catch hold of Charles and what happens next is what the entire film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The movie looks outstanding on papers and even as a one liner idea. The chosen chapter from Charles Shobraj’s life in this film is fascinating and has a high amount of curiosity attached to it. Sadly, the screenplay lacks proper detailing and strong happenings. The movie starts with abrupt date references right from the 60’s era to the mid 80’s. There are loads of repetitive scenes involving the love making and drugging patterns of Charles. Many of these scenes are irrelevant, especially the whole super stretched Goa track. In the whole film, they keep hammering us by saying that Charles has hypnotic powers to charm any girl and control other peoples mind, but there isn’t a single scene which justifies or presents it in a proper manner. Also, the basic detailing about Charles is not shown, due to which the personal connect is missed out. There is definitely a high amount of curiosity in the film, which has been mildly sustained with the help of the few good scenes like Adil Hussain interrogating Charles victims followed by his chat with Richa, the whole jailbreak part, Richa-Randeep conversations, Adil Hussain gets the main motive of the case, etc. On a technical basis, there are many loopholes related to the date, style, setup, language, etc related to the era shown in the film. There is one huge blooper in the film where the police nabs Randeep and instantly in the next shot, it’s announced on radio after which the police nabbing scene again continues. The cinematography is of top notch. 

Music & Direction:

There is not much scope for music in this film. Remix version of ‘Jab Chaye Tera Jadoo’ is good, but the background score resembles the score from ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai’.

Director Prawal Raman is known for making some good thrillers, like his short stories in, ‘Darna Mana  Hai’ and ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’ followed by one of India’s finest physcological thriller ‘404: Error Not Found’. He also directed a dud like ‘Gayab’ and wrote another such type of film ‘Darling’. This is his first non-supernatural film and he fails to do proper justice to it. He had a great opportunity to present one of a daring con ever witnessed in our country, but misses out due to the weak screenplay and lethargic narration. 

Performances:

Randeep Hooda highly succeeds in adapting the real life character. His body mannerisms, accent, looks, etc does full justice to his character. Adil Hussain is brilliant and adds up as a second hero in the film. Richa Chadda, Alez O’Neil and Shanu Dev lend good support, but have nothing special to boast about. Mandana Karimi, Vipin Sharma, Tisca Chopra, Heeral Mei and others were wasted. 

So bol meri 'Filmi Khopdi' iss film mein kitna hain Dum???

Dum??? Well, concept wise and basic story wise there is lots of dum, but everything gets fizzled out due to weak screenplay and lethargic direction. It’s not a bad film but, you do feel bad over the lost opportunity, as it had all the potential to become a great film. On an overall basis, ‘Main Aur Charles’ is like a prime time news hour debate which has an interesting topic to start with but ends up with the same routine stuff without giving a proper solution to the main problem.

Ratings - 2*/5

'Guddu Ki Gun' - Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Guddu Ki Gun'

Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Firecracker Shots...'

Expectations:

As a kid Kunal Khemu was loved for his powerful role in ‘Zakhm’ and comical acts in films like ‘Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke’ and ‘Raja Hindustani’. The actor grew up to do some different type of films and found his space back into the comical films with films like ‘99’, ‘Dhol’, ‘Golmaal 3’ and few more including ‘Go Goa Gone’. He was outstanding in the later films and with the failure of his films from other genre made it clear that, the audience wants to see this actor essaying comical roles and thus, despite of low publicity and less known actors associated with it, Kunal’s latest film ‘Guddu Ki Gun’ has some curiosity attached to it. Tough, it’s not a routine comedy Kunal did in past, ‘Guddu Ki Gun’ is an adult comedy with a double meaning poster attached to it. Thus, let’s find out whether this new venture of Kunal into the world of adult comedies will end up in his favour or might damage his fading career further more.

Story:

‘Guddu Ki Gun’ is a story of washing powder salesman Guddu (Kunal Khemu), who sells his product by luring the housewife’s and by full filling their sexual needs. Guddu is happy with his life and support from his roommate Ladoo (Sumeet Vyas). Things change as one fine day Guddu find outs that his private parts have been overnight transformed into hard metal gold. Guddu and Ladoo starts to find out the root cause of this magical transformation and finds out that it’s due to a curse of an old man. They also find out that Guddu’s private parts will normalize only when he finds true love of his life and will be the same if he marries that girl. Thus, Guddu and Ladoo starts to look out for the true love of Guddu and what happens next is what the entire film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The one liner story concept is very good for an adult comedy. It’s something unseen and unattempted. There are some comical scenes like Kunal and Sumeet visit sexologist’s clinic, Kunal discusses about his private part with Sumeet, Kunal meeting Payal Sarkar, Sumeet forces Kunal to participate in a competition involving one’s private parts, Kunal and Sumeet kidnapping track, Kunal’s part in Mughal-E-Azam drama (though, others ruin the fun with their overacting) and a few more which manages to tickle your funny bone. There should have been more such comical scenes and that too with more adult humour attached to it. On the flip side, the concept is not properly utilized and at times tries to cross the fine line between vulgarity and adult comedy. The film also slows down with the arrival of love track. One will find some quirky double meaning names like ‘Lingamjitis’, ‘Lingam returns’, ‘Baba Sonekaanand’, etc. The camera work is good and goes in the favour of the film.

Music & Direction:

Music is not impressive and songs acts like bumpers in the film.

Director duo Shreeshank Anand and Shantanu Ray dares to come up with such bold and unusual adult comedy, which lacked highly over the adult humor. They dare to enter the no entry zone only to take a reverse turn and makes a safe exit like all others. The makers should have gone all their way out and should have given us a good adult comedy on the lines of ‘Masti’, ‘Kya Kool Hain Hum’, ‘etc. The movie could have been a decent entertainer, but sadly ends up being a weak and an adult clone of Priyadarshan types of films. The duo fails to keep the film slide away from adult humour to double meaning track due to which the movie ends up being trashy and demeaning at times. 

Performances:

Kunal Khemu does his part with grace and once again shines out in a comical film. Sumeet Vyas lends fantastic support and has a brilliant future ahead. Payel Sarkar, Brijendra Kale, Jameel Khan and others lend good support. 

So bol meri 'Filmi Khopdi' iss film mein kitna hain Dum???

Dum??? Well the movie had good potential to cater its adult comedy loving audiences, but ends up as a half-baked product with over dose of double meaning humour and stale screenplay in the later part of the film. The movie has its moments but on an overall basis this loaded gun, ends up as a firecracker shot with fake sound and its plastic effects. 

Ratings - 1.5*/5

'Hallucinating Day Dream...' - 'Shaandaar' Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Shaandaar'

Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Hallucinating Day Dream...'

Expectations:

After working in production teams of films like ‘Black’, ‘Aamir’, ‘Welcome To Sajjanpur’, ‘Dev.D’ and few more films, Vikas Bahl co-debuted with Nitesh Tiwari with a sweet and small film ‘Chillar Party’. Despite of being a small film it still managed to grab its viewer’s attention and won him the prestigious National Award. The critical and commercial success motivated this talented director to make something different and his individual directorial debut happened with Kangana Ranaut starrer film ‘Queen’. This movie was a not only successful at the box office, but also ended up being a path breaking film because to its fantastic direction and ace performances. The impact was so high that the viewers for a longer period, failed to come out from the hangover of this film. It ended up being one amongst the list of highly watched and loved films from our country and can be watched over and over again at any given time. Thus, right from the announcement of Vikas’s new film ‘Shaandaar’ the expectations were sky high. To top it up the movie has Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starring in it after giving us one of their best performances last year (Haider & Highway) respectively. So let’s find out whether ‘Shaandaar’ will match up to such humongous expectations or might be yet another path breaking film under this genre of romantic films.

Story:

‘Shaandaar’ is a story of Bipin (Panjah Kapur) and his daughters, Isha (Sanah Kapoor) & Alia (Alia Bhatt). Alia despite of being an adopted child, is favourite of Bipin, but is disliked by his wife (Niki Aneja) and mother Kamala Ji (Sushma Seth).  In order to save her bankrupt family, Kamala Ji fixes up Isha’s marriage with Robin (Vikas Verma) who is brother of a multi millionaire Pandwani (Sanjay Kapoor). The whole marriage takes place in a castle and is managed by Jagjinder Joginder / J.J (Shahid Kapoor). During this process, J.J and Alia starts loving each other and what happens next is what the entire film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The story is one liner and couple of fresh tracks attached to it. But, on an overall basis it’s a tried and tested type of story which is totally predictable. The first half starts with fresh note and has some good comical moments indulged in it. Scenes like Shahid-Pankaj meet, Sanjay Kapoor’s entry scene, Shahid-Alia mime chat at breakfast, Brownie-Mushroom effect, mehendi with Karan track and few more keeps you entertained in the initial phase of the film. Sadly, once these comical tracks fades out the movie goes on a repetitive and dragging mode in the later part. The bankruptcy track, father- adopted daughter track, forceful marriage track and few more are totally stale and have been shown countless times in our films. The insomniac track is interesting, but ends up being a victim of a half baked product. There are multiple characters in the film and almost everyone gets sidelined in the second half, till the finale of the film. The finale part has its funny moments but as said earlier is predictable and has been presented in totally bizarre manner. There are plenty of stuffs happening in the film, but at the same time there is hardly anything happening in the film. The screenplay lacks detailing and seems like a result of a forced product involving big names and moolas attached to it. The movie highly excels on technical basis and has a decent animation track attached to it. Also, the cinematography by Anil Mehta is of top notch and gives the movie its much needed looks. The movie is ‘Shaandaar’ in terms of its visual presentation. 

Music & Direction:

Music by Amit Trivedi is good but not among his best works. ‘Shaam Shaandaar’ goes well with the mood of the film. ‘Gulaabo’ is interesting and appealing. ‘Nazdeekiyaan’ fails to blend with the flow of the film. ‘Senti Wali’ is too dramatic. ‘Raitaa Phailgaya’ is enjoyable. Remix versions of ‘Eena Meena Deeka’ and ‘Neend Na Mujko Aaye’ fails to create the magical impact like how ‘Hungama’ did in ‘Queen’.

Director Vikas Bahl tried to attempt a fairy tale type of romantic film and partly succeeds in few scenes featuring Pankaj Kapur (animated part) along with Shahid and Alia, plus the huge backdrop of grand wedding attached to it. Sadly, this movie is nowhere in comparison to his best work ‘Queen’ and not even ‘Chillar Party’. The freshness is in parts and the movie seems like a garish attempt and has less of soul attached to it. The comical track works along with fantastic presentation but the half baked screenplay ends up as a party popper. It’s sad that whenever a good director gets hold of big budget film, they fail to do justice to it, proving the point that such directors can create only wonders when they make films with tight budgets and tough conditions. 

Performances:

Shahid Kapoor looks fabulous and all his fans who love him in a romantic avatar, will enjoy his visual appearances. Though, this movie is way below the caliber of Shahid after watching him in film like ‘Haider’. Nevertheless, he does his part with total grace and adds up as the positive point in the film. Alia Bhatt is cute and slips easily in her character. One does wonder, why the makers emphasize more on her bikini scenes (especially in the end credits) rather than focusing more on her acting skills. Pankaj Kapur lends good support but has nothing new to offer. Sana Kapoor is sweet and reminds us of her mother Supriya Pathak. Sushma Seth and Vikas Verma are fine in their parts. Sanjay Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani, Niki Aneja, Kabir Shaikh, Shibani Dandekar, Chittaranjan Tripathy and others are wasted. Cameo by Karan Johar is welcomed. 

So bol meri 'Filmi Khopdi' iss film mein kitna hain Dum???

Dum??? Well the movie has some enjoyable dum in the first half, followed by few comical moments and songs. It might be liked by the diehard fans of Shahid and Alia, but will be a huge disappointment for all the fans of Vikas Bahl. Even if we don’t compare ‘Shaandaar’ to Vikas’s last film ‘Queen’, this movie works only in parts and fails miserably in the finale portion. On an overall basis, ‘Shaandaar’ is like having a hallucinating day dream, which starts on an exciting note and ends up like a dragging dream which distracts you from the reality.

Ratings - 2*/5