'Angry Indian Goddesses' - Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Angry Indian Goddesses'

Movie Review By 'G9 Divya Solgama'

'Displays The Various Emotions Of Womanhood...'

Expectations

In a male dominating society our Hindi films have also been highly obsessed over narrating the tales of male friendship. We had many iconic films celebrating male friendships and when it came to the same, featuring females, there were very few films to name. Though, one did see minor references in few old films like ‘Swarg Narak’ or ‘Shriman Shrimati’ followed by films like ‘Aisha’, ‘Dor’, ‘Cocktail’, ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’, etc. The friendship bond in these films was minimal, due to which the expectation level reaches at sky level after watching the first promo of ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’, which claims to be one of its first kind of film which celebrates female friendships. Thus, let’s find out whether ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ will manage to make its right mark and be at par with films like ‘Dil Chahta Hain’ or might end up as one more half-baked product with good concept attached to it.

Story

‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ is a story of Frieda Da Silva (Sarah-Jane Dias) who invites her friends Pamela (Pavleen Gujral), Madhurita (Anushka Manchanda) and Suranjana (Sandhya Mridul) to her home place in Goa. Frieda is getting married and thus wanted her best friends along with her cousin Joanna (Amrit Maghera) and maid Laxmi (Rajshri Deshpande) to be part of her happiness. The girls bond with each other and celebrates Frieda’s happiness until one dark night when hell sets loose. What happens next is what the entire film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The story is one liner and works only due to the moments attached with the film. The movie starts with good fun and slows down in the middle portions of the film but as the second half arrives the move sets on its right course. Every character have their own style, problem and habits, making them interesting and enjoyable. There are many engaging moments like the outburst in the start of the film followed by girls cheering Sarah over her dress, discussions related to mannerisms of guys, responsibilities of a girl, humiliation faced by females, Sarah sharing her secret, whole of Adil Hussain track and its aftereffects, etc. All these scenes and enjoyable minute moments keeps you glued with the film. Sadly, the badcensorship, weak screenplay in the middle part of the film and couple of side tracks dilute the intensity of the film. The finale part lacked the hard-hitting factor. The cinematography is apt as per the requirement of the film.

Direction:

Director Pan Nalin narrates a tale about few female friends and weaves a story around their happenings. He finally gives us a much required film, celebrating the female friendship and also addresses many unspoken topics. It’s due to his sensibilities the movie despite of its flaws, ends up to be a good watch.

Performances

Sarah-Jane Dias is superb in the film and looks smashing. Pavleen Gujral entertains you with her simplicity. Sandhya Mridul gives yet another good performance. Adil Hussain in small part is impressive. Amrit Maghera and Rajshri Deshpande lends good support. Anushka Manchanda was not up to the mark. Tannishtha Chatterjee was wasted. Arjun Mathur’s blink and miss appearance was nice.

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

So despite of bad censorship, half-baked screenplay and couple of minor glitches, on an overall basis, ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ is a decent watch for all those who believe in equality as it displays the various emotions of womanhood. 

Rating - 3.5/5

LINK - http://cinemarkets.com/Page_three/review_detail/angry-indian-goddesses-cine-review

'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