Gabbar Is Back

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 1st May, 2015
Time : 130 minutes
Director : Krish; Writer : Rajat Arora (remake of Ramana by A R Murugadoss); Music : Chirantan Bhatt, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Manj Musik
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Shruti Hassan, Suman Talwar, Jaideep Ahlawat, Sunil Grover

Five Reasons Why You Should Watch Gabbar

1. Its on the right topic – corruption in our country has become so ubiquitous we don’t even notice it, think about it anymore – and it truly is an evil that needs to be eradicated
2. The solution suggested – ie we individually have to get up and do something about it – not just start a chat group or hashtag on Twitter but actually shake off our inertia and take some concrete steps. Our politicians, bureaucrats & big businessmen are living in too much of a cozy “You scratch my back, I scratch yours” relationship to ever really break things up. Different political solutions have been tried and failed – each one has vested interests…
3. Akshay gives a decent performance – manages to be understated even while delivering the crowd pleasing lines. Jaideep and Sunil, both of whom play cops, also lend credibility to their roles

4. The story remains reasonably true to the topic – a crusade against corruption. Few diversions do come up (a back story, a romantic angle), but thankfully it doesn’t stray too far. There is also a hospital sequence that was great fun, will resonate with many!
5. One song – Teri Meri Kahani - is sung and pictured very nicely ! Enjoyed watching it for a change – else normally songs in most Hindi films are a great moment to catch up with the rest of the world for the audience.

Five Reasons Why You Should Not Watch Gabbar

1. There is nothing really new in the film. Nothing not seen in five hundred films on corruption, one man crusades, revenge sagas. Not a single new thought or visual. Action wise – it’s the same old – people flying all over the place with the aid of cables, dialogue wise, it really couldn’t get cheesier than some of the lines (Hamara system baby ke diaper ki tarah ho gaya hai – kahin se geela aur kahin se dheela!)
2. Lots of things really stretch credibility. The size of his team / staunch supporters, the college angle, the kind of people he manages to catch & kill with impunity – all of this beggars belief. And he, of course, acquires miraculous powers when he chooses, decimating gangs of villains single-handedly...
3. Our cops have to be the dumbest in the world – they really are shown to be the sort who literally sit with their heads in their hands, and eat samosa with lal chutney, while top officials get kidnapped and killed around them. Even their top CBI guy seems clueless on what specifically to do…

4. What is Shruti Hassan doing here? What is her role – apart from one song in Lavasa, what does she really bring to the party ? Wonder why film-makers feel forced to add an unnecessary romantic track. I also thought Suman made for a very weak villain…quite ordinary…
5. There is a really crass, crude, vulgar item song - Aao Raja – starring my one time hot favourite Chitrangda (of all people). Am surprised with the kind of visuals and lyrics it has (and it wasn’t even needed in the film, was a kind of force-fit), the film got away with a less than A rating. And why, pray why, Chitrangda, are you stooping to this level ?


Overall, I went with really low expectations but the film, thankfully, wasn’t all that bad, or maybe my standards have dropped in terms of what Hindi commercial, masala films can deliver

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Katiyabaaz

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 22nd August, 2014
Time : 84 minutes
Director: Deepti Kakkar, Fahad Mustafa; Writer : Fahad Mustafa;
Documentary



So, this is a documentary. Had walked in thinking it was a movie. It articulates well, a problem faced in many Indian cities, especially in Kanpur, where it is set. Of power theft, loss-making government owned electricity companies, populist politicians determined to milk the situation, get elected, be arrogant, misbehave, sincere bureaucrats (there are a few) trying to improve the system and the titular character, a katiyabaaz, someone who actually makes his living by fiddling the wires to do the theft.

The battle lines are quite clearly drawn. It’s the Katiyabaaz, Loha Singh, Kanpur’s best wire guy vs the Power Supply Corporation, symbolized by its new IAS director, Mrs Ritu Maheshwari vs the Politician, Irfan Solanki, who’s only interested in playing to the gallery of onlookers. Its quite a vicious cycle too – there are few paying customers, so the transformers are of a certain capacity, but thanks to the rampant theft, they burn out, leading to more grief to the irate public, most of whom are non-paying but that doesn’t dampen their belligerence. And then there is the other issue of power supply / generation itself being well short of the demand.

The milieu is well captured, the technique of using interviews interspersed with the events in Kanpur is nicely done. The dangers Loha Singh goes through everytime he climbs a ladder to fix a wire, as do other citizens when wires burn, transformers short circuit, are brought to life nicely. After a while though, you wish the film would move faster, even go somewhere. Its quite repetitive in parts.

Everytime you visit certain parts of UP, especially places like Kanpur, apart from certain malls (and in Lucknow, the grotesque, overpriced parks) it seems like time has stood still… everything looks the same, the same filth, overcrowded lanes, overflowing sewers, the lawlessness and the burgeoning population. And of course the electricity issue. This documentary, in fact, doesn’t get into the powerful generator lobby and their machinations to keep the populace starved of the government supply. In any case, the film paints a dark picture, pun intended, of how things are… and are likely to remain for a very long time !

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Highway

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 21st February, 2014
Time : 133 minutes
Director, Writer : Imtiaz Ali; Music : A R Rahman
Starring : Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda, Durgesh Kumar



Its voyages of self-discovery that seem to move the needle for Imtiaz Ali – with films like Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and now this one, he seems fascinated by the confused lives well-to-do people lead, of their search for what and who makes them tick.

This is probably the strangest one of the three – a rich girl being unintentionally kidnapped around her wedding day – and then after a while, developing a bond with her kidnappers, enjoying a life of ‘freedom’ vs her normal constraint laden life. Of course, you also get some gorgeous visuals, a pulsating background score, some lovely, touching moments and also a strange, bittersweet end…but I found it an interesting watch, albeit not one I would be rushing to the theatres to view again.

It does drag a bit – there are almost more shots of our countryside than of the actors. Some of the scenes seem contrived. Some deliberately manipulated to wring some emotion out of us. Some unrealistic. And some, especially the topic of child molestation, downright uncomfortable.

It’s the unlikely lead pair, though, of Alia and Randeep (who else in the film industry would’ve dared to make a film with almost only these two ?) who make the movie watchable. Alia is far from the finished article but would encourage her to do more such roles than the candy floss, sugar coated bimbette role she chose to launch her career with. She gets it right here. You connect with her – even if not with everything she does – she makes you laugh, appreciate her predicament, sympathize with her as she grows in confidence as the film progresses. An excellent effort for someone in only her second film. And that dance sequence to the mash-up was just amazing, with full marks to Durgesh Kumar for his role in it !

Randeep scowls through most of the film and it’s a testament to his acting skills that he still makes you feel for him. Life hasn’t been kind to him, and the kidnapping, where the girl he has grabbed to save his skin, turns out to be the daughter of a well-connected, powerful man, is just another of fate’s unkind twists. Both he and Alia carry a deep secret / regret in their lives too, and just how deep, we discover through the film.

It was interesting to see a body language coach in the credits – he certainly did his job – Randeep’s squat, the way he wore a blanket around himself, the limp, lifeless way he walks around – was all spot on, as were the sights and sounds of driving around the highways of our gorgeous country. The tea stalls, the music, the fields, the eating places, the helpful people and the beautiful natural beauty around us. If nothing else, this one is going to make you want to go on a long drive !

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Boss

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 16th October, 2013
Time : 144 minutes
Director : Anthony D’Souza; Writer: Farhad-Sajid; Music : Various
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Ronit Roy, Shiv Pundit, Aditi Rao Hydari, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Dengzopa, Parikshit Sinha, Govind Namdeo, Aakash Dhabade, Johnny Lever



This film is to subtlety what Yo Yo Honey Singh is to melody…the best thing you can say about it is that it isn’t as bad as some of the recent crap that has graced our screens…but then that isn’t saying a lot, is it ?

A scrawny teenager, chucked out by his holier than thou, school-teacher father (Mithun) saves the life of a principled Don type guy (Danny) and becomes his heir and protégé. Danny is known as Big Boss so Akshay’s title is the snappier short form. The makers, not being the shy sort, remind us of this every now and then – Boss has a personalized squad of cheerleaders, a few toughies who never fight but either scream ‘Boss’ or ‘Jai Mata Di’ and become a rocking chair on demand, personalized number plates and also rings which obviously remind him who he is…

In other developments, a tough but corrupt cop, Ronit (easily the best thing about the film), is marrying off his unwilling sister (Aditi) to prize champu (well played by Aakash Dhabade) who is the Home Minister’s (Gobind Namdeo) son but when she, as in all Hindi films, falls instant ‘Louuww’ with Shiv (happens to be Akshay’s estranged brother), Ronit is not very happy and the battle lines get very quickly drawn, with most of the film from then on consisting of various parties threatening each other of all sorts of dire consequences without doing anything of too much consequence…

Legality, time and space continuum, logic are just some of the casualties of the plot. A Delhi cop will peacefully land up in Kurukshetra to nab a criminal and then base himself there. Mithun will land up from whatever village he lives in to Delhi as soon as Ronit has locked his son up, without any prior notice (a good blow for all those who harp on mother’s intuition - see, Dad’s have it too !) and then, in the laughably, slow-motion riddled, long-drawn out climax), someone arrives from the ICU, casually strolling to a god–forsaken location, just to do huggy-wuggy (so sweet !)…

There is a sequence with a punching bag that is funny. Another involving a fake fight with written dialogues (incl a mention of AR Rahman) that also raises a few laughs. But then you have bawdy jokes like a truck named ‘Behen Ki Lauri’, some ribald Johnny Lever ones and numerous item and non-item songs plus unnecessary senti moments to slow down the pace of the film and make you groan with as much pain as those bashed up by Ronit or Akshay.

There is nothing here that you’ve not seen before…the same slow-motion, cable aided stunts, bodies bruised, cracked and flung around by heroes who look scarcely capable of doing so…when someone calls it paisa vasool entertainer, I really wonder kiska paisa, aur kaun vasool kar raha hai !?

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