Anuj Naik

Luka Chuppi [2019] Directed by: Laxman Utekar Cast- Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Vinay Pathak, Pankaj Tripathy, Atul Shrivastava, Alka Amin, Aparshakti Khurana. This comedy is set in Mathura wherein a news channel reporter Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) and his intern Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) decide to live-in together before tying the knot, hilarity ensues when their families get dragged into it resulting in confusion, chaos and melodrama. Utekar as the director does a good job and the movie has an old world charm reminding you of movies like Piya Ka Ghar(1972) or Prem Vivah (1979), though not the premise but the genre is very ‘slice of life’. It has the same ‘middle of the road’ feel like Bareilly Ki Barfi(2016) and Badhaai Ho(2018). The music is a major letdown with songs heavily remixes and borrowed from hit Punjabi originals. To give Utekar due credit he has brilliantly used Mohammed Rafi’s ‘Jaan Pehchan Ho’ and Sharda’s ‘Bidaai Geet’ in two hilarious situations. Kartik Aaryan is brilliantly adorable in the lead role, his comic timing and dialogue delivery are excellent. Kriti Sanon fails to impress but looks charming and tall, just too tall. Both Aparshakti and Pankaj Tripathy are fantastic and perform with aplomb especially the latter who gets into the skin of his characters so effortlessly in his recent acts. Now, there are some religiously offensive dialogues which may not go down well with some viewers, but the overall intent of the director and the almost clean and ‘Family viewing’ nature of this comedy can easily overshadow the minor flaws. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dé Dé Pyaar Dé (2019) Directed by Akiv Ali Cast- Ajay Devgun, Tabu, Jimmy Shergill, Rakulpreet Singh, Alok Nath, Javed Jaffri, Sunny Singh, Madhumalti Kapur, Kumud Misra, Bhavin Bhanushali, Inayat Sood. A typically illogical romcom about a 50 year old UK based Finance manager who falls hopelessly in love with a sexy bartender who’s nearly half his age. The catch here is- introducing the new entrant to his big fat family in Kulu Manali, India. Situational hilarity ensues with the family disapproving of the liaison and some misunderstandings leading to more confusion and sometimes laughter as well. Though there is nothing novel in this movie, the director has handled the comedy parts quite well sometimes stooping to slapstick as well. The running time of 134 minutes is quite long for an one dimensional plot like this, editing needed serious attention. The music is loud and bombastic and has that punjabi wedding DJ flavour except two beautiful songs sung passionately by Arijit Singh viz; Dil Roye Jaaye and Tu Mila To Hai Na, you can listen to these two on loop. Ajay Devgun nearly sleepwalks through this role, even punches some goons to consolidate his action image but no wonder why he’s made to look like he’s got an eternal hangover. Rakulpreet has that vintage Sridevi appeal inclusive of cosmetically enhanced features. Veteran Alok Nath as the grumpy dad gets some good one liners and poor Jimmy Shergill is yet again typecast as the forever waiting groom. Javed Jaffri as the comical psychiatrist is spot on. Tabu- can she ever go wrong? At 48 she looks sexier and wilder than ever. While she underplays during the comic scenes she gets one breakdown scene wherein she nails it hard, hers is undoubtedly the best act in this ensemble cast. This is more of the “leave your brain at home” popcorn entertainment variety of romcom. If you try hard to hunt for logic you’ll find a sack full of loopholes and if you watch it like an fairytale you may enjoy the proceedings on screen. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

SIMMBA [2018] Director : Rohit Shetty Witness yet another commercial potboiler by “Rohit Shetty and Team”(that’s how he credits it) wherein you need leave your brain as well as basic logic at home and sit with a bucket of 🍿 to be bombarded with a heavy dosage of action, comedy and oodles of melodrama. The movie is centred around a corrupt cop Sangram Bhalerao aka Simmba(Ranveer Singh) who accepts bribe at the drop of a hat, protects criminals and is as good as a pet loyal dog to the local don (Sonu Sood) who along with his brothers runs a drug mafia business using a pub as the centre and children as drug carriers. A heinous crime involving the brutal gangrape and murder of a teacher (Vaidehi Parashurami) brings a complete transformation in Simmba who turns righteous overnight and fights for justice. Rohit Shetty is best known for mindless yet profit earning propositions like the Singham and Golmaal franchise. Simbba is also high on the commercial entertainer parameter with a heavy dose of Shetty trademark action sequences bordering on violence and the stereotypical Bollywood comedy. Shetty also uses the feminist angle to woo the audiences this time. Technically it’s extremely poor with highly disappointing remixes, lacklustre screenplay and editing. Action is definitely the upper selling point here. Ranveer Singh mouths dialogues exactly the way he did whilst playing Bajirao, yet one must applaud this actor for having the ability to display multiple expressions in a few nano seconds, he’s there in every frame and fits the character perfectly. Ashutosh Rana is marvellous and a delight to watch playing an honest middle aged constable. Sonu Sood frowns and flexes his biceps to justify his villainous streak. The comedy angle is taken care of by Siddharth Jadhav, Vijay Patkar and other actors playing the constables. Vipin Sharma, Uday Tikekar are cast in regular corrupt politician roles and they ham through their acts. Special mention of actor Nandu Madhav who plays his part really well. Vaidehi Parashurami is excellent, The gorgeous Sara Ali Khan is wasted in a blink and miss kind of role yet she is pleasant to watch. There is an entire Mahila Morcha brigade in the movie comprising Suchitra Bandekar, Sulabha Arya, Neha Mahajan and others. Ever irritating Ashwini Kalshekar yet again overacts and is too loud. What works is an reliable lead actor who very sincerely carries the movie on his strong shoulders and the heavy dosage of action comedy that can easily cater to the audiences. What doesn’t work would be a hackneyed storyline that resembles 90’s movies which dealt with the “rape and revenge” theme and the dramatic melodrama that may not go down well with the millennial audience. Overall Rohit Shetty has a confirmed winner on the cards. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) Director: Shelly Chopra Dhar Now, with a title as long as that you never know what to expect from a movie which has a tag line as weird as “a siyappa love story”. The entire set up is very obviously targeted at NRIs who may as per the director would love to lap up the rich punjabi flavor in this not so entertaining comedy. Set in Moga, Punjab the movie is about a simple punjabi girl Sweety (Sonam Kapoor) who is a price catch for the matrimonial seekers considering her affluent background comprising an pompous father(Anil Kapoor) who is a wealthy garment exporter. She isn’t impressed by the suitors even if they are high on brains (Rajkumar Rao) or beauty (Akshay Uberoi), and then at the interval point there is an unexpected revelation that explains the title of the movie as well. Director Shelly Chopra Dhar tries hard to infuse unlimited Punjab flavor with oodles of energy and loud and chest thumping dialogues but a very weak screenplay and an weaker editing leave the audience exasperated. As the captain of this ship Dhar is a big let down and what’s more surprising are the poor production values from Vidhu Vinod Chopra that make this 120 minutes long movie appear like a long running Ekta Kapoor tv series. The unbearable rehash of the Classic RD Burman-Javed Akhtar- Kumar Shanu song Ek Ladki Ko Dekha is a disgrace to music. Most songs are loud and fit the fat Indian wedding DJ playlists. Anil Kapoor looks jaded and sick as opposed to his otherwise lively energetic self, poor Sonam gets the best role of her career after Neerja(2016) but she can’t express and has either a wide fake smile or a smirk plastered on her blank face. Very fine character artistes like Brijendra Kala, Seema Bhargava and Kanwaljeet Singh are wasted in caricaturist roles. Sad to see a senior actor like Juhi Chawla wasted playing a stereotypical comical punjabi Aunty, truly tragic ! Regina Cassandra has that dusky raw sex appeal and is pleasant to watch. Only two actors stand out in this mismatched disinterested cast, Rajkumar Rao playing the play writer cum Samaritan is a delight to watch and considering his ability to effortlessly imbibe qualities of the character he portrays, this role must’ve been a joyride for him. Abhishek Duhan is fantastic in his role and should get better assignments in the future. Though aimed at being an emotionally driven comedy this movie is a total failed attempt by the director and producer who just do not engage the audiences as the principal characters are disappointing and the story misses hitting the bull’s eye. ⭐️⭐️

ANDHADHUN (2018) Directed by : Shriram Raghavan ~~~~~~NO SPOILER ~~~~~~~~~ “Don’t miss the Beginning” claims the subtitle of this thrilling black comedy layered with dollops of suspense and mystery. They’re right, the “Hare” hunt in the beginning is beautifully woven in the story leading to that shocking unexpected climax ! So don’t miss the beginning. The story is based in Pune and revolves around a young blind piano player Akash (Aayushman Khurana) who despite his visual disability is a master of playing the musical instrument that attracts a lot of attention-good, bad and ugly. Akash gets inadvertently entangled in the web of crime and passion when he “witnesses” a cold blooded murder. Soon there is another murder and the witness this time is - yes you guessed it right Akash again! Now he has to run away from the chasing unfriendly cops as well as the octopus clutches of the murderer. As the story progresses the viewers get to watch how Akash outwits his detractors to solve the mystery. For viewers expecting candyfloss and toilet jokes there is none of that business here, the humour is strictly and largely in the black comedy genre, whether it is the chase sequences or the murders they will give you the edge of the seat shock as well as an wholehearted laughter! Raghavan has intellectually woven a taut and sleek script with generous humour. Screenplay, story, cinematography, dialogues everything is a clear winner except for the editing, it could’ve easily been an 2 hour thriller with the extra 20 minutes (read - romance) chopped off. Music is passable but the lovely piano interludes of famous 70’s Bollywood songs is a delight. It’s interesting how Raghavan has used props which help the thriller to pace forward like the Puneri Rickshaw, Laughing Buddha, Wine and off course the hero of the story- The Piano. Aayushman Khurana gets an author backed role and expectedly does complete sincere justice to it, Zakir Hussain as the surgeon and Manav Vij as the Police officer are apt in their respective roles, it’s a delight to watch yesteryears forgotten actor Anil Dhawan in a wonderful cameo playing an aging faded but cheerful former Bollywood star, he plays his role gracefully. The delicious Radhika Apte is wasted considering her immense talent, Ashwini Kalshekar as Vij’s nagging wife is repetitive and gets on the nerves. Chhaya Kadam is fantastic and delivers a knockout performance. Tabu seems to be getting wilder and adventurous with age and experience, playing Dhawan’s wife she has invaded all possible territories through this role that an artist would’ve yearned for. Playing a woman who is mentally strong even in the most challenging situations and who is unapologetic about her materialistic as well as sexual desires, she scores high with her bravura performance. One must credit Raghavan for the way he has picturised and depicted the first murder, it has that Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie kind of vintage crime flavour to it. Raghavan also pays homage to 70’s Bollywood music and songs from Dhawan’s old classics like Honeymoon(1972) and Hawas (1974) are played during important sequences in the movie. There is no doubt the director is excellent in this thriller genre considering his earlier outings like Ek Hasina Thi (2004), Johnny Gaddar(2007) and Badlapur (2015), ouch! he also directed Agent Vinod (2012) but then who doesn’t falter in life, it’s human to err. A must watch for off-beat cinema freaks and a big NO if you follow stereotypical Bollywood masala films, Raghavan doesn’t disappoint and yes one must thank that notorious Hare who proves its worth at the right time ! ⭐️⭐️⭐️

KEDARNATH {2018} Director: Abhishek Kapoor So we are revisiting the tragic cyclonic storms that claimed so many innocent lives in Uttarakhand in June 2013. To give the maverick director his due credit he has certainly done a fantastic job of recreating the horror in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Set in Uttarakhand the tragic love story features a young passionately in love couple Mansoor (Sushant Singh Rajput) and Mandakini (Sara Ali Khan) who are but obviously by Bollywood tradition divided by class and religion. With the families at war the unexpected storms create the much needed sensation in the story. Director Abhishek Kapoor has focussed majorly on the anti climax sequences wherein the special effects are adorable and worth appreciating, when we can go ga ga over the cartoon like effects in the over hyped 2.0 (2018) why not give due credit to the effects here which are authentically conceptualised and look realistic. Kapoor nearly sleepwalks in his direction through major portions but is thankfully rescued by his lead players( who are extraordinarily excellent), nobody might remember Kapoor as a flop actor from some duds of the 90’s but he’s certainly showing that spark of a good film maker in this movie. Though special effects take the cake here, the cinematography, art direction and dialogues are also noteworthy. Unfortunately the editing, screenplay and music are a major letdown. Some listeners may disagree considering the music has that soothing effect yet it doesn’t fit into the story. Sushant Singh Rajput proves his acting mettle by delivering like a veteran, an actor of few words he manages to impress with his body language and facial expressions. Sara Ali Khan is mighty confident for an debutante and has a lot of spunk and proves her capabilities in her first impression itself, she’ll be a welcome change among the pencil thin anorexic plastic dolls in Bollywood. Supporting cast gets lesser screen time yet Pooja Gor and Nishant Dahiya make their presence felt. Good old Nitish Bharadwaj (remember the admirable Krishna from Mahabharat(1988)), Arun Bali, Sonali Sachdev get very little scope to perform. Alka Ameen is sincere in her portrayal of the suffering Mother. Thankfully Kapoor hasn’t relied on melodrama or the typical mandated Bollywood overdramatised scenes, the communal angle to the Muslim man and Hindu girl love story is courageously underplayed. Even the deaths during the storm are not dramatised. Basically the movie relies on its lead players and the penultimate sequences, one can easily skip the entire movie to just watch the recreation of the storms in the end and it won’t necessarily take away the soul of the story as such. Kapoor also gets brownie points for depicting his female lead character of Mandakini aka Mukku (Sara) as a rebellious and strong girl who speaks her mind out even if it means using foul language in the presence of her orthodox mother, when it comes to her love story she defies her “tradition” and makes the first move to woo her lower class Muslim lover, she’s shown to be fiercely unapologetic about her untraditional opinions or romantic feelings, even during the horrifying storms she ferociously attack’s her villainous husband (Dahiya) like an wounded lioness, certainly a good move for our Bollywood leading ladies. A good, sincere and cinematically beautiful attempt to present a love story scarred by the nature’s wrath, Kapoor’s premise of cashing on a Hindu Muslim love angle with the Uttarakhand tragedy as a backdrop can well be categorised as a “tragic love story” though Mansoor-Mandakini can’t be labelled as historic as Vasu- Sapna or Prem- Suman but their romance is definitely better than some of the insipid teenage love stories being presented nowadays in Bollywood. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

BAAGHI 2 (2018) Directed by: Ahmed Khan Rather than following his father’s footsteps young actor Tiger Shroff is on a mission to portray roles that are s combination of Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan ! The rate at which he’s either shaking a leg or flexing his biceps is enough evidence of his Hero worship. The predictable plot here starts with an Army Man Ronnie (Tiger Shroff) summoned by his ex flame Neha (Disha Patani) to track down her missing daughter who she claims has been kidnapped. Everyone including her neighbors and husband Shekhar (Darshan Kumar) claim they never had a daughter and the existence of the missing girl is disputed. Enter the cops, a plethora of muscle flexing, drug abusing or cigar smoking villains and the plot is thickened in order to give the hero enough reason to bash down the baddies and unravel the mystery. The plot is not only confusing and misleading but the way the director has approached the story is highly questionable of his directorial abilities. If it’s a mystery then he suddenly shifts gear to action and when the plot takes high speed he’s reversed it suddenly to stale romance. Overall the film doesn’t qualify for any particular genre unless the director deliberately wanted it to be a mixed bag of sorts. Technically it is only the action department that impresses specially the extended climax that takes the cake here. The screenplay and story lack charm and music is highly uninspiring. Whoever thought of remixing and restructuring an classic like Ek Do Teen needs to be severely punished. Tiger Shroff hogs the limelight and deserves applause for a very sincere performance even though his acting skills ain’t anything to rave about he makes up for that limitation by performing superficially in his stunts, it’s great to watch someone slipping easily into an Indian Rambo avatar. Whatever appealed to serious actors like Manoj Bajpaye and Randeep Hooda to play these roles, they just do not impress. Pratik Babbar is a total disaster as the goan drug addict. Only Deepak Dobriyal manages to perform efficiently amongst the supporting cast and leaves an impression. Ashwin Kaushal, Darshan Kumar, Vipin Sharma, Gauhar Khan are all listless. Pencil thin Disha Patani has painstakingly dead expressions and can make even Nargis Fakhri or Siddharth Malhotra look like Oscar winners, she is irritatingly disastrous. The gorgeous Jacqueline Fernandez is unfortunately wasted in a bad song. The director tries hard, very very hard to infuse emotions into this plot. Unfortunately some of these emotional scenes turn into jokes considering you have really bad actors like Patani or Babbar enacting them on screen. If only the director had tried to focus on the movie by streamlining it into a particular genre like say either a suspense thriller or an action drama then maybe the end result would have been better. Overall an average Action cum Suspense cum Emotional roller coaster ride which is watcheable only for the stunts performed by the lead actor. ⭐️⭐️

NTR KATHANAYAKUDU(2018) This comprehensive biopic chronicles the life and times of Telugu superstar NTR aka Rama Rao who ruled the Telugu cinema as a lead actor for a whopping four decades ! The biopic initially focuses on image building by introducing NTR’s (Nandamuri Balakrishna) self respecting, righteous and ambitious approach to his personal as well as professional lives. How he quits a stable Govt job and relocated to Madras to pursue his dream, starts with inconsequential character roles and on the sheer power of hard work and audience love he skyrockets to superstardom. The movie deals with the personal and career events in NTR’s life from 1947-1985 including his bold and daring angst against the infamous emergency period in India. Director Krish Jagarlamudy does a fine job considering the Herculean task he was assigned to depict the larger than life gigantic persona of NTR. Nandamuri Balakrishna reprising his father NTR is a delight to watch, he has inherently portrayed the mannerisms, dialogue delivery, personality traits of his late father in perfect sync. Sumanth playing Akkineni Nageshwara Rao does a brilliant job. Prakash Raj, Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma are disappointing. Notable cameos include Jisshu Sengupta as LV Prasad and Ravi Kissen as Ravikant Nagaich, both are brilliant. Vidya Balan breathes grace and warmth in her portrayal of NTR’s wife Basavatarakam. Nithya Menon is impressive in a brief role as the doomed star Savithri. Eye candy appealing cameos include Hansika Motwani as Jayaprada and Rakulpreet as Sridevi. NTR’s bold persona and his commitment to his work is showcased well for instance he played triple roles of Krishna,Karna and Duryodhan in a mythological, how he ensures to complete his movie shooting even after hearing about his teenage son’s death, his daring face off with the prime minister(Supriya Matkari),all these events only add to his intriguing persona on and off screen. Except for a running time of nearly 3 hours there seems to be no other hindrance noticeable in this brilliantly conceived biopic of a superstar who hasn’t faded from the memories of his followers over the years. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hard hitting. Yes Realistic. Yes Boring. No Propaganda. No Favouring a community. No Defaming a community. No Just go by your instincts rather than believing spineless ‘film companions’, The Kashmir Files is brutally honest, graphically disturbing (no distortion of facts) and hits you hard! The barbaric exodus / genocide of the Kashmiri pandits in 1990 is an episode ‘conveniently’ forgotten whether in the political diaspora or media. Director Vivek Agnihotri (whose earlier work I’ve never appreciated) has sensitively and quite intellectually presented a very factual representation of the horrifying genocide, nothing dramatic or bollywoodish about it. Most of the murderous scenes will run a chill through your spine. Through the eyes of a young kashmiri pandit we get to revisit what actually happened in 1990! With able support of Kher, Issar, Chakraborty the movie only soars higher. But the star imo is Mandlekar as the antagonist, conveying immense hatred and rage through his villainous eyes, as a viewer you’ll hate him and that’s where he as an actor proves his mettle. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE KASHMIR FILES (A) is a Bollywood film based on true incidents directed by Vivek Agnihotri. It features Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumar, Prakash Belawadi, Puneet Issar, Pallavi Joshi, Chinmay Mandlekar, Bhasha Sumbli, Mrinal Kulkarni, Sourav Verma, Imaan Iqbal, Atul Srivastava, Prithviraj and others.

GULLY BOY [2019] Director: Zoya Akhtar It’s sheer cinematic pleasure to experience an hard-core Bollywood musical in the true sense which has an immensely likable collaboration from various vocal artists who contribute towards nineteen original soundtracks in this movie. The film is about the inspiring journey of a young boy Murad(Ranveer Singh) who lives in Dharavi and aspires to be an rap artiste. The journey isn’t easy, with only his passion & perseverance at helm he marches ahead to achieve his musical dream & succeeds too. Inspired from and based on the real life struggle and success of street rap artists turned internet sensations Divine & Naezy, this musical extravaganza is a viewer’s delight. Director Zoya Akhtar does a fantastic job and deserves even more praise for the error free perfectly scripted screenplay(along with Reema Kagti). Dialogues by Vijay Maurya are even more praiseworthy. The only hitch is the running time of around 155 minutes, no doubt around 25 minutes could’ve been meticulously chopped off. The musical bonanza in the movie needs to be heard, watched & experienced to believe how authentically unconventional & different it is from the regular Bollywood fare nowadays. Ranveer Singh seems to be on an all time high as he efficiently portrays the steady & believable journey from Murad to Gully Boy. Alia Bhatt playing his possessive jealous girlfriend is in great form. Siddhant Chaturvedi is a pleasant revelation in his impressive debut. Vijay Raaz nails it as the abusive father. Having lesser screen time actors like Vijay Verma, Ved Thapar, Amruta Subhash,Sheeba Chaddha & Nakul Sahadev make their impeccable presence felt. Somehow Kalki Koechlin’s role doesn’t work out. Gully Boy is like an welcome change and just how many Bollywood films can be categorized as musicals in the true sense? In the recent past Abhishek Kapoor’s Rock On (2008) & Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar(2011) had Rock Music as their theme, Gully Boy only raises the bar higher. Madam Akhtar who had earlier directed notable films like Luck by Chance(2009), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara(2011) & Dil Dhadakne Do(2015) has given us the best film from her Resume till date with Gully Boy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️