SOOPER SE OOPER    1 star


Low-budgeted movies turned out to be quite a game changer in Bollywood these days. But a film released with neither any promotion nor any hype or hoopla, will be discarded by the masses, no two doubts in that. It's a matter of sheer negligence to make a movie with such great effort & persistence and releasing it without highlighting about the concept, motive of the movie and for whom it has been made & that too without any renowned name attached to it. The trailer, though, gave us the feeling that the movie would provide some genuine laughs but alas! it turned out to be just the contrary with immature plot, direction & acting.

Without delving much in the storyline & to cut the long story short, the movie is based on property feud due to which a Mumbai-based lad Ranvir Singh aka Dholu (Vir Das) is forced to look out for his long lost forgotten Maama/Madhav Singh Rathod (Gulshan Grover), to claim his rightful property from illegally getting in the hands of Kukreja (Deepak Dobriyal) and Salim Bhai (Tinnu Anand). He goes off to a village Shekhawati in Rajasthan for the same, as he has only 30 days to claim. That's it. He gets struck there, somehow returns back to Mumbai, falls his head over heels to Gulabbo (Kirti Kulhari) and the endless list goes on & on of his problems, with a hurried climax that sets everything right.

Frankly, these sorts of stories seem quite good in the paper but doesn't even deserve to be made into a movie of 109 minutes. The film has nothing novel to offer. It keeps on dragging right from the very beginning to the point it becomes a sore for the eyes. The second half is even more sluggish. To make the situation worst, the movie has got substandard songs as well. The director cum story writer (Shekhar Ghosh) is clueless throughout. The DoP (Mohana Krishna) too seems overshadowed by the amateurish idea of the director. Music Directors (Bickram Ghosh & Sonu Nigam) should be given no future assignments of composing songs for any movie. The dialogues are ubiquitously plain ordinary. The talented bunch of actors are wasted with poor acting as well.

Vir das does a commendable job but doesn't quite experiment neither with his looks nor acting. Kirti Kulhari, Gulshan Grover, Yashpal Sharma, Mahesh Balraj, Mohan Kapoor & Tinnu Anand (cameo) are wasted. Deepak Dobriyal is competent, though he performs over the board.

On the whole, Sooper Se Ooper would result in a huge loss to all the concerned. For the uninitiated, don't even search for it on the net.

MICKEY VIRUS   3.5 stars

Gen Y, the successor to Gen X, is novel with the idea of Hacker movies in Bollywood, to be precise, whereas it is a perdurable affair in the West (read Hollywood). But to base a story on hacking, wholly, entwined with right dose of romance (read skin show), humor (read toilet humor), emotions and most importantly thrill (read astounding suspense) and that too in the heartland, Delhi, the place of douchebag yet prudent persons, is indeed a wacky idea, & Mickey Virus is the result. Kudos to the Hindi film industry for churning out such ideas.

Two foreign hackers in Delhi are injected with lethal chemical & killed in broad daylight, unbeknown to the police. To solve the enigmatical cyber crime case, ACP Siddhant Chauhan (Manish Choudhary) and his aide-de-camp Inspector Devender Bhalla (Varun Badola) employ a 20-something lethargic yet street-smart sly hacker Mickey Arora or Mickey Virus, as he is popularly known as, who operates with the pseudonym Kung Fu Chameli in cyberspace. He is taking forward his legacy by controlling his mother's grocery store in the day and creates viruses and quirky softwares in the night with his allies Shalu Sharma aka Chutney (Puja Gupta), Manjot Gill aka Floppy (Raghav Kakkar) and Palwindar Singh aka Pancho (Vikesh Kumar) with learnings from Professor Utpal Acharya (Nitesh Pandey) aka Papa of hackers. He is unwilling to do the job & keeps on procrastinating until he falls head over heels for Kamayani (Elli Avram) - his own Kung Fu Chameli, which leads to getting himself struck in the cyber trap with a well-programmed series of crimes and has only 14 hours to survive. It is then he is forced to operate his skills and what happens to his search for the gang, is a result of his talent (read Hacking).

The film's premise is so based in the cyberworld that the pace of the narration stands by every aspect of the plot alike any high-speed internet. You need not to blink your eyes until the next page loads. Even in the second half, the story doesn't get encrypted, where most Friday releases come under the scanner. The best part has been ctrl+S (read saved) for the second half, where the plot provides the spectators with evidently shocking twists & turns, which keeps them hooked till the very end. The climax is top-notch & will leave the spectators awestruck. The camaraderie between Chutney & Mickey alike Tom & Jerry, is a delight to watch. The dialogues, screenplay & direction (Saurabh Verma) is computer-esque and are vividly apt. Well done Mr. Verma for this debut venture.  DoP (Anshuman Mahalay) captures the mood of the director well & does a commendable job. Music (Agnel Roman, Faizan Hussain and Hanif Sheikh) does irritate the viewers at times. Pyar China Ka Maal Hai is the standout composition. The best of the words should be accosted for the casting director (Abhishek Banerjee), who casts a supremely hordes of actors, who compliment each & every scene of the movie. The idea is overall, inventive, which is a luminous treat to watch.

On the flip side, the first half should have less scenes of Mickey drooling all the way over the voluptuous Kamayani. The plot in this hour takes long to build up. That's it.

Manish Paul is an eminent figure in television world. He is the cutest television host ever and in his debut movie too, his comic timing, body language & mannerisms of geeky college brat deserves applause, who delivers his witty one liners just as one presses the Enter button while Programming. He is simply brilliant in giving his body & soul to the role. Long way to go for him. Elli Avram isn't that bad, though she doesn't know acting but this is her debut stint and she's limited to merely skin show in all those skinny clothes, be it formals, casuals et al. Her eyes speaks a lot, which aides to a lot of her expressions. Puja Gupta's dialect reflects her tomboy look rather well. She's is one such talent, who proves herself time & again. The other two pals of Mickey are quite impressive. Manish Choudhary & Nitesh Pandey are tailor-made for the role but it's only Varun Badola who gets his due with his brilliant act. His lines are indeed funny & the way he delivers them, make them even funnier. The movie is sure to win him as many accolades as it could.

On the whole, book your tickets pronto and enjoy this crisp & quirky bug. Get infected ASAP!

SHAHID 3.5 stars

In a career spanning 7 years, the noted & the most contested Indian lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi has 17 acquittals, most known for defending those wrongly accused in cases of terrorism. He was shot down in his Mumbai office by three incursionists in 2010. Director Hansal Mehta and writer Sameer Gautam Singh take the brave step and give a tribute to the manful, intrepid and resolute man he was, through the movie. The spectators of Hindi cinema today, relish varied genres and some stories are ought to be told by the medium of cinema. Hence, the movie is a mix of 95 per cent fact & 5 per cent fiction and the sole motive of the documentation is to enlighten the viewers with Shahid Azmi's journey, right from being arrested during the riots till his assassination, that should not only be parochial to merely a controversial news piece.

After Shahid's arrest during the 1992 Mumbai Riots, he goes to Pakistani Controlled Kashmir into a militant training camp, but comes back disillusioned. The police gets hold of him again under TADA, serving seven years in Delhi's Tihar Jail, on charges of plotting against the state, where he has been given Third Degree treatment & forced to remain naked throughout, though he was acquitted later. He starts studying while in jail under the influence of Professor Saxena (Yusuf Hussain) & Waar Saab (Kay Kay Menon), though he gets influenced somehow by radical person like Omar Sheikh (Prabal Panjabi) but he was so damn adamant on reading & frustrated by the injustice that he goes on to finding resolve & optimism through mentoring & support of his elder brother Arif (Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub) to become a criminal defense lawyer in Mumbai in 2003, defending cases for those accused for terrorism. Meanwhile, he comes across Mariyam (Prabhleen Sandhu), over a case of property dispute & gets hitched, after several meetings cum date over the matter of her lawsuit. He continues his fight against injustice & gets on to become the bone of contention and resultantly, gets slained in 2010 at the tender age of 32. Shahid's only aspiration are the sentences by lawyer Roy Black :
“By showing me injustice, he taught me to love justice. By teaching me what pain and humiliation were all about, he awakened my heart to mercy. Through these hardships I learned hard lessons…”

Hansal Mehta presents the film with ample drama in 129 minutes of runtime with spell-binding courtroom sequences. Every scene has some message hidden. The pace is jogtrot. In this tight budgeted movie, the cinematography -- overcrowded neighbourhoods, congested bylanes and filthy houses match each & every frame of the proceedings. The camaraderie between the brothers with their Ammi (Baljinder Kaur) is well presented. The editing is (Apurva Asrani) is slick. The romantic angle between the high voltage courtroom drama is soothing. Casting director ( Mukesh Chhabra) makes no mistake in his casting.

Though I have some reservations over the use of expletives, the unexplained track of Shahid's escape from training camp in Kashmir and the forced track of Kay Kay Menon.

Raj Kumar Yadav is exceptional in the portrayal of such a controversial lawyer. He is phenomenal. He carries forward the movie alone in his shoulders. Time and again he has proved himself & this time, he takes a giant leap as an incredible actor. He conveys bravity, vulnerability, bashfulness, victory and defeat with ferocious enthusiasm and how! After the show concludes, you'll take away his sincerity with you. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Baljinder Kaur and Prabhleen Sandhu deserves special mention. They are exceptional ubiquitously, especially Zeeshan, who's quainter & benign this time. Kay Kay Menon is almost there. Yusuf Hussain is competent as always. Tigmanshu Dhulia as Maqbool Menon, cast in brief but significant role, is wonderful. Vipin Sharma is a remarkable actor, no two doubts in that. Prabal Panjabi is effective in cameo. Mukesh Chhabra, who enacts the part of a witness, Shalini Vatsa as Prosecutor Tambe and Paritosh Sand as Judge are first-rate.

On the whole, Shahid is provocative, moving, gripping and thoughtful movie that has bravura performances to add to its credibility. It teaches us the moral that one needs to be always ready to fight against injustice irrespective of religions because the adage proves right as Shahid says that Marta Bhi Insaan Hai & Maarta Bhi Insaan Hai. Director Hansal Mehta has shown that real heroes are inside us, only we need to feel the feeling.

WAR CHHOD NA YAAR   3 stars


War comedies are no big affairs in the west, whereas in India, this genre has been completely unexplored yet. Gobsmacked! A satirical take on one of the most hostile regions of the world i.e. the Indo-Pak border, or to infuse humor in a movie that takes on the sentient issue of enmity between India and Pakistan, evidently requires courage. Moreover, there is always an element of risk associated with the genre that has not been introduced to the viewers of Hindi films. Amid masala films, writer & director Faraz Haidar comes up with the most innovative idea on the theme of war in the recent times that puts across a more acrimonious message of vacuity of wars through his commendable effort.

The story commences with the Defense Minister of India (Dalip Tahil) convening a noted journalist Rut Dutta (Soha Ali Khan) beseeching her to make a rattling report on the Indian army as the Indo-Pak war is to be declared in two days time and to live telecast the footage after two days when the war commences. As soon as Rut reaches the base camp of the Indian army, she witnesses warmth and friendly care between the armies of both sides more than animosity. They even play Antakshari to keep themselves entertained and busy as well. Rut keeps on asking Captain Rajveer Singh Rana (Sharman Joshi) whether he wants the war to happen, on which he replies in negative that he would rather treat them to chicken! However, the superfluous war sets off on the same night and as the war progresses further, the regnant sense of disenchantment about war grows in the armies. While Government orders and ghastly forces both try to foment the war, an exclusive coverage of the war by Rut reaches out to people as the truth of the battle.

The film’s script and its execution is absorbingly done. It is a simply told story that focuses on making the viewers laugh and how! A humorously knitted satire where soldiers from both ends of the border discuss about lunch and they sit across the Line of Control & play cards. The story holds immense significance on the futility of war continually. The film has genuine scenes which will have the spectators in split through the tongue-in-cheek dialogues. It will leave the viewers by a lingering impact as the film concludes. Faraz Haidar has a long way to go as a director. His direction is almost flawless. Cinematography, the landscape of Rajasthan, is showy.

On the flip side, the reason why the war begins isn’t clearly etched out. These sort of movies should have been a songless affair. Had the runtime been trimmed down to atleast 15-20 minutes, the impact would have been longlasting. Towards the penultimate moments, the film begins to get exhortative as the screenplay writer has no idea what to do with the film anymore but the ultimate moments only make up for it. Cinematography -- the landscape of Rajasthan -- is eye-catching, although the night shots get too pitch-dark on screen. The night shots get too stygian on screen.

No two words could describe the acting skills & comic timings of Sharman Joshi and Jaaved Jaafrey. They are indeed a delight to watch. Soha Ali Khan portrays her part credibly. Dalip Tahil gets to portray four different characters with utmost ease as if the role has been tailor-made for him. Sanjay Mishra as Commander Khan is fanatastic. He has got some of the genuinely funny lines to deliver and he's faultless. Time and again, he proves that he truly is a versatile actor. Manoj Pahwa as Pakistani General and Mukul Dev as Pathani intruder is competent.

On the whole, War Chhod Na Yaar is a welcome change that manages to evoke ecstatic delight with a friendly yet powerful message imbibed in it. Iss film ko *mat* chodna yaar.

BESHARAM    3 stars

A landslide victory in the name of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani has ascertained Ranbir Kapoor into the race of one-upmanship in Bollywood. Right from the script selection to proving his mantle onscreen & attracting viewers in hordes, forced the producers & directors to look at the emerging Prince cum competitor to the three Khans of Bollywood. Teaming up with Himanshu Mehra, Sanjeev Gupta, Reliance Entertainment and the real Dabangg offscreen, Abhinav Kashyap, the immediate outing Besharam is evidently crucial for Ranbir Kapoor, as this is his first tryst with an out-and-out masala film & going by the screen count (4187 screens worldwide), the movie would make or break the hype & hoopla surrounding Ranbir as the new Superstar of Bollywood.

It is a flat story of an orphan cum street smart car thief cum car mechanic, naam haiga Babli (Ranbir Kapoor), who lives life to the fullest without any guilt and finds familial love in the fellow orphans with Titoo (Amitosh Nagpal) as his only chum cum confidant. He even donates all his money to the orphanage for the upbringing of other orphans. He has neither any worries nor ambitions in life until he bumps into feisty Tara (Pallavi Sharda) in a party, falls for her immediately and his life takes a diametrical change when he ends up unknowingly stealing Tara's newly bought Mercedes, after failing to woo her despite multiple attempts. For the very first time, he starts feeling sorry for his deed and is hell bent on returning the car back to her lady love, which leads him back to the notorious Hawala king of Chandigarh Bheem Singh Chandel (Jaaved Jaafrey). With Senior Inspector Chulbul Chautala (Rishi Kapoor) & Head Constable Bulbul Chautala (Neetu Kapoor) and the flagrant Chandel hounding him, how Babli manages to escape the vacillating situation & turns his back to all his ill-doings, forms the crux of the story.

There ain't anything novel & innovative other than what was promised in the promos. It banks heavily on the stereotypical formula of Bollywood blockbusters. The screenplay is sloppy & fractured throughout and loses the consistency cum intrinsic beauty of the characters in the form of tedious plot. All the characters here come & go whimsically, while the story stays hooked on to the two main leads. Some of the scenes are stretched vaguely to infuse the toilet humor but some of them succeed, mainly in the second half & during the climax and the rests fall flat. To raise the bar of languid screenplay, there are songs coming out of nowhere every 15-20 minutes. The heroine snubs the hero but grooves with him the following moment. The clever writing in the form of Dabangg and the charisma of the Hero ala Robinhood Pandey have been overlooked legibly. Even the love angle should've sparked tremendous appeal in a breezy drama like this but unfortunately the writers have missed on to this too. The heroine is an absolute misfit for the suave Ranbir & is loud & screechy to the hilt and hence, their chemistry lacks fizz. The sole flattering scene is their charged conversation in the hotel room in Chandigarh. The overdose of matrix style action and the soundtrack too are outdated & disappointing. The dialogue "Naam Chulbul Rakh Lene Se Koi Dabangg Nahi Ban Jaata" proves to be a mirror.

The three Kapoors are the whole & soul of the movie. No words could describe the legacy of their acting skills. Right from the tongue-in-cheek dialogues to the unmatchable camaraderie between the Kapoors make the movie thoroughly enjoyable. The audiences would fall for the film's clap traps in bits. There is *not* anything new in the direction, on the same line as Dabangg, yet Abhinav Kashyap's trademark style is unconquerable. The locales & frenzy are captured adroitly. Ranbir Kapoor never falters & perfects whatever he's assigned to perform. Right from the corny lines he mouths in his own indomitable Robdaar style to the flashy clothes he wears, he's simply brilliant. It seems that he's in his comfort zone throughout. He would start a new trend of keeping the sunglasses. Watch out. Pallavi Sharda, as an individual heroine, makes a confident debut as grouchy, stern and demanding girl next door. Yes, there ain't anything vastly impressive about her yet she is adorable. It is a wonder how the supremely talented Rishi Kapoor slips in each & every character, he portrays, with such elan and the effortlessly mesmerizing Neetu Kapoor is astoundingly loud as a Haryanvi constable.  It's a delight watching the two with such compatibilty on screen. Jaaved Jaafrey sets alive the ferocious Chandel. He's not memorable though, for the kind of acting style he has. Amitosh Nagpal is competent.

On the whole, give this one a shot for drollness, the jhaamphaad climax and the Kapoor clan in attendance, as the USP, in a single frame but don't expect any enchanting fun. You won't be disappointed.