Bollywood Movie Reviews

Watch Movies Online

HOT Bollywood

More Articles...

Bollywood Quick Links

Gallery Buzz

Cover Up

Best Reviews

The Dirty Picture Movie Review

Intermittently, real life is far more appealing and compelling than fiction. And a biopic -- which attempts to recount a person's life story or at least the most historically momentous years of his/her life -- is most demanding for not just the... Read more...

RA. ONE – Movie Review

Here’s a movie the Hindi film industry can be proud of. “Ra.One” can be touted as the first Hindi film that blends the elegance of Hollywood with Indian sensibilities. From the very onset, this classy sci-fi film sets the viewers’ adrenalin... Read more...

Azaan – Movie Review

Film: “Azaan” Cast: Sachiin Joshi, Candice Boucher, Sarita Choudhary, Aly Khan, Ravi Kissen and Aarya Babbar Director: Prashant Chadha As we see rescue operations post a bombing attack being carried out in slow motion, the soundtrack goes almost... Read more...

Rascals – Movie Review

Film: “Rascals” Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Arjun Rampal Director: David Dhawan At some point in this pointless parody of all of David Dhawan’s Tom and Jerry comedies from the past, Devgn and Dutt, playing a... Read more...

Bollywood Movie Reviews

The Dirty Picture Movie Review

Intermittently, real life is far more appealing and compelling than fiction. And a biopic -- which attempts to recount a person's life story or at least the most historically momentous years of his/her life -- is most demanding for not just the storyteller/s, but also the actors who bracket together with those films. Occasionally, a dash of some imaginary anecdotes are incorporated in biopics, since the moviegoer seeks some diversion and entertainment in a movie, besides enlightenment.

Having said that I'd like to add that it's easier to take a recognizable route, to opt for the tried and tested, but it's frightfully difficult to be diverse. Producers Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor are known for accepting challenges and backing films like LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA, RAGINI MMS and SHOR IN THE CITY and along with director Milan Luthria and writer Rajat Aroraa had successfully recreated the bygone era with flourish in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI. Now THE DIRTY PICTURE fires all powerful bullets to stir your mind's eye.

The general feeling is, THE DIRTY PICTURE is a biopic on the life and times of Silk Smitha, a sought-after actress of the 80s. I personally feel that THE DIRTY PICTURE draws inspiration from the struggling female actors in the 80s, whose insurmountable and indomitable spirit made them emerge triumphant and create a distinctive space for themselves in the male-dominated industry. It's a recreation of an era, with the makers seeking motivation from a lot of characters to create this one woman.

Let me clear this at the very outset. THE DIRTY PICTURE not only draws attention to the life of a sex goddess, but also makes us responsive of the catastrophe behind the facade. Silk -- the principal character in THE DIRTY PICTURE -- provides titillation to millions of viewers, but dies a forlorn and heartbreaking death. She battles fame, fortune and alcohol. Brave, daring and provocative, THE DIRTY PICTURE doesn't cross the line into impropriety and offensiveness.

Envisage a junior artist who became the most sought after female protagonist of the early 80s. Chronicling the meteoric rise and steep fall of a screen sensation, THE DIRTY PICTURE is set against the colorful and entertaining setting of the South film industry of the 80s.

The quintessential siren, Silk, knew her spectators and it didn't seem like anything would stop the intensely motivated starlet, till it did, in the shape of unrequited love. To the world, she was the queen of sensuality. But, at heart, Silk was just another woman craving for true love. An unfortunate encounter with deceit and infidelity led to dire consequences!

First things first! Milan Luthria is brave and intelligent. Brave, because Milan steps out of the comfort zone to narrate the tragic story of an actress. Intelligent, because THE DIRTY PICTURE does not develop into a dry and depressing fare at any juncture. This one stresses on -- as Vidya puts it -- entertainment, entertainment and entertainment. Well narrated and wonderfully executed, THE DIRTY PICTURE is sure to strike a chord with the avid moviegoer. I'd like to give brownie points to Rajat Aroraa's dynamic script and razor-sharp dialogue. The riveting screenplay and power-packed dialogue will remain etched in our memory for a long, long time, eliciting a similar response like ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI. The writing holds the spectators' interest and doesn't let you digress from the screen, except for a few minutes in the post-interval portions. The portions between Emraan and Vidya slows the narrative, though, I'd like to add, it picks up dramatically when Vidya gets conned by a maker of porn movies. The sequences thereafter, right till the finale, take the film to the crescendo again.

THE DIRTY PICTURE is embellished with several powerful sequences. Note the sequence when Vidya convinces/seduces Naseeruddin Shah, after he refuses to work with her. It's remarkable. Also, the first encounter with Emraan Hashmi. Noteworthy! Much later, the volatile sequence at the awards ceremony [the intermission point] is amongst the highpoints of the enterprise. The second hour has its share of super moments as well. The one featuring Vidya outside Anju Mahendroo's mansion is super. Vidya's interaction with the two women [individual sequences, both] -- with Naseer's wife first and Shakila, the dancer, next -- packs a solid punch. Vidya's interaction with the maker of porn movies is another shocking twist. The finale, of course, moves you no end.

Vishal-Shekhar deliver a good soundtrack. 'Ooo La La' is easily the song of the year [rendered brilliantly by Bappi Lahiri and Shreya Ghoshal], while 'Ishq Sufiyana' has long legs too. Another striking track is 'Honeymoon Ki Raat'. The choreography of these tracks [Pony Prakash Raj], especially 'Ooh La La', is straight out of the 80s. Bobby Singh's cinematography is magnificent.

Vidya's sizzling show and dare-bare act is sure to seize the viewers by complete astonishment. It's a novel casting because it is nothing like what Vidya has done before and is completely diverse to her image. But let's give Vidya the due: She delivers an astounding performance, pushing the envelope yet again. It wouldn't be erroneous to state that Vidya will walk away with the awards for the sterling act in this film. Besides, she carries off the hot attire without making her character look vulgar or tasteless. In fact, Milan and costume designer Niharika Bhasin Khan have ensured that the sexy-looking persona is aesthetically depicted. Vidya had put on oodles of weight to get the look of the character right and the flabby body only adds a lot of authenticity to the character she depicts on the big screen.

Naseeruddin Shah, who has been cast as an ageing South Indian superstar, sports wigs, dark glasses and painted moustache, reminding people of the stars of that era. He plays to the gallery, provoking claps, laughs and whistles, thus pulling off the role with élan. One has to credit Emraan Hashmi for willing to take on bold, aggressive characters. I actually wondered what prompted the actor to share screen space with Vidya, who has a meatier role and enacts the central character, but he walks his own path throughout the film. He plays the headstrong, hot-blooded, rebellious director to the hilt. Tusshar is wonderfully restrained in a significant role. His sequences with Naseer and Vidya, both are truly fantastic.

Anju Mahendru is first-rate, reminding people of a real-life lady journo, who was hugely popular for her writings in the 80s. Rajesh Sharma, the film-maker who 'discovers' Silk, is outstanding. An actor to watch out for! Shivani Tanskale, enacting the role of Naseeruddin Shah's wife, is perfect. Mangal Kenkre [as Ratnamma] and Imran Hasnee are adequate.

On the whole, THE DIRTY PICTURE banks heavily on shock-value, sex-value and most importantly, script-value. It's an exceptional portrayal of an ordinary person's rise from scratch to extraordinary heights and her subsequent fall. Without doubt, it is one of the most comprehensive scripts to come out of the Hindi film industry in 2011. A film with a universal theme and terrific mass connect, it has remarkable potential to set the cash registers ringing for one more valid reason -- entertainment, entertainment and entertainment.
© bollywoodhungama.com

RA. ONE – Movie Review

Here’s a movie the Hindi film industry can be proud of. “Ra.One” can be touted as the first Hindi film that blends the elegance of Hollywood with Indian sensibilities.

From the very onset, this classy sci-fi film sets the viewers’ adrenalin soaring. It also educates, entertains and eulogises our culture. And, very predictably, from the very beginning you know that the crux of the film is about how good triumphs over evil.

“Ra.One” dwells into the virtual world of today’s youngsters who are hooked on to technology and video games.

Prateik (Armaan Verma) is one of them. For him the villain is the hero simply because he does not play by the rules. It’s winning, by hook or by crook, that matters to him.

Shekhar Subramanium (Shah Rukh Khan), the clumsy, nerdy game developer father of Prateik, lovingly tries convincing his son with, “Allow me to quote….” and quotes Mahatma Gandhi and such like. The youngster is unimpressed, thereby revealing the generation and cultural gap between the two of them.

Disheartened by the strain in the father-son relationship, Shekhar develops the invincible Random Access One (Ra.One), who can take any form, to please his son. Still not fully convinced with his own creation, as a standby he also develops Good One (G- One), who could exterminate Ra.One if need be.

Excited with his father’s creation, Prateik plays Ra.One with a screen name, Lucifer. He manages to cross level two of the video game, thereby antagonising “Ra.One”. Unknown to Shekhar and his team, Ra.One steps out of the game into their real world to eliminate Lucifer, thereby threatening Prateik’s life.

This concept of the characters sliding from the virtual world into the real world seems to have been inspired from the Hollywood film, “The Purple Rose of Cairo”.

“Ra.One” is an outright Shah Rukh Khan film.

The way Shah Rukh gracefully slips into the roles of Shekhar, Ra.One and G-One, leaving no room for confusion, is remarkable.

He is the superhero of the film. That’s because the script was skillfully and convincingly put together by Anubhav Sinha, Kanika Dhillon, Mushtaq Sheikh and David Benullo. The dialogues by Kanika and Niranjan Iyengar are good in parts.

The little gimmicks by Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and Rajnikant add to the lighter moments of the film but take the story nowhere.

Shahana Goswami as the employee at the electronic company and Arjun Rampal as Ra.One look fine for the roles they play but have very little to deliver. Armaan as Pratiek is impressive.

The outfits of Ra.One and G-One designed by Robert Kurtzman and the bright production design are worth a mention.

Vishal-Shekhar’s music and the background score along with the awesome stunts and thrilling chases are electrifying. The film would not have been what it is if it was not for Resul Pookutty’s sound design, Sanjay Sharma’s editing and for the visual and special effects team.

With all the minor blemishes, this movie is still worth seeing at least once.

This high energetic film is loaded with antics, animation and action. With many thrilling sequences mounted with grandeur, it gives you the feel of a live video game. It is probably one of the classiest movies seen in the Hindi film industry and a feather in Anubhav’s hat.

Azaan – Movie Review

Film: “Azaan”

Cast: Sachiin Joshi, Candice Boucher, Sarita Choudhary, Aly Khan, Ravi Kissen and Aarya Babbar

Director: Prashant Chadha

As we see rescue operations post a bombing attack being carried out in slow motion, the soundtrack goes almost inert in a show of frozen protest…And you know there and then that “Azaan” has something out-of-the-ordinary to offer to the action genre.

Tackling global terrorism and Islamic isolation as seen through the eyes of a tormented Muslim secret agent, “Azaan” heads towards its flaming phases of flash-points with the least amount of fuss or ostentation. The narrative knows all the sign posts.

The screenplay by Shubra Swaroop is gritty and gripping, ensuring that every episode stays a step ahead of the audiences’ expectations. The characters speak a language that belongs to the world of terrorism and anti-terrorism.

And yet the spoken words in various languages including Hebrew and French do not obtrude or impinge on the harmony that the narrative creates in the discordant disembodies world of serial bombing across the world.

Explosive as the theme is, no one is here to have a blast. The most remarkable aspect of the action in “Azaan” is the lack of flamboyance. The hero (debutant Sachiin Joshi, decent and modest) is a one-man army but no super-hero.

He bleeds, he hurts, he feels the lashes on his soul of a world hell bent on destroying itself. We feel him feeling all of this, partly because the screenplay doesn’t shy away from emotions when required. Men do cry. But not for long. Really, guns don’t go with violins.

There is a touching but distant story about two brothers ideologically separated by extremism in Taliban-torn Afghanistan who come together towards the end in a show of strength where the script emerges the real hero.

Post-interval the clenched tactile plot (no comic relief here) introduces a brief romance between the hero and Caucasian woman, who we are told, practices a very unusual vocation. Afreen (Candice Boucher, eye-catching) is a sand designer (not to be confused with a sound designer who does a fine job on this film).

Afreen’s little daughter could possibly save the world from a deadly viral terrorism. Don’t ask how. The action moves with quiet dexterity from Morocco to Agra. The Taj Mahal is under threat. Luckily the action genre is safe.

The merger of the themes of global terrorism and the personal demons that drive the characters beyond the edge, is achieved with a surprising lack of brouhaha. Though “Azaan” is arguably the best-looking action film shot in India, it neither flaunts its resources nor takes the narrative on a world tour just for the heck of it.

Rascals – Movie Review

Film: “Rascals”

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Arjun Rampal

Director: David Dhawan

At some point in this pointless parody of all of David Dhawan’s Tom and Jerry comedies from the past, Devgn and Dutt, playing a pair of warring, snaping, snarling, sneering con-persons, call for each other. ‘Chetan? Bhagat? Chetan? Bhagat? ….”

In that pause between the last blast and the next you know the script writer (Yunuz Sajawal) is thinking of how to carry the plot to the next gag.

Wish they had actually roped in author Chetan Bhagat to write some of the episodes. We would at least be looking at more than just an endless raunchy wordy ramble into the realm of toned bikini bodies. And these include the two leading ladies Kangna Ranaut and the striking Lisa Haydon.

In fact the film looks like one long excuse to let the camera ogle at semi-nude female figures in Thailand and Bangkok. The laughter, if it was ever intended, is strictly incidental.

The gags in “Rascals” are so stale and tasteless and the situational comedy so devoid of any kind of originality or freshness, you wonder if David Dhawan just made this unfunny comedy to please his friends who play the major roles in the film.

As Chetan and Bhagat, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn get to ham to their hearts’ content. Not their fault. It’s the need of the hour. Make that two hours. Two long painful hours of mirthless gags and skits adding up to no sense of hilarity.

Kangna Ranaut is the funniest thing in the film. And not in any intended way.

But nothing matches up to the brazen insulting nature of the dialogues. At one point Chetan or Bhagat (hard to say which one speaks, as they’re constantly interrupting and shouting down one another) look at a dark-skinned man and comment: “How did this black gulab jamun get a white rashogolla for a daughter?”

Go get a laugh, Mr. Dhawan. The prolific and trendsetting director has clearly run out of tricks to make the Tom and Jerry act any further. And really, Anil Kapoor-Govinda in “Deewana Mastana”, Salman-Govinda in “Partner” did the sniping and snarling, so much better.

The film is carpeted with dreadfully unfunny jokes that insult every community including, of course, the movie-going community which is expected to laugh at a scene where Sanjay Dutt puts on an unconscious woman’s underwear on and wonders: “Why is it so much easier to take off a woman’s clothes than put it on?”

Really, Mr. Sanjay Chhel, what were you thinking when you wrote such embarrassing lines taken straight from the wall of a private toilet?

Any silver linings? Yes, Arjun Rampal. He’s so cool and in control, you wonder what he is doing in such an uncool rudderless comedy. And poor Hiten Paintal. An actor with considerable comic timing, is stuck among actors who seem to be totally out of rhythm. Hiten is reduced to being Sanjay Dutt’s sidekick.

Wanted urgently: A makeover for David Dhawan’s brand of comedy. Seriously, this comedy is not funny.

Force – Movie Review

A raw rugged cop’s tale of vicious vendetta fused into a tender romance seems like a hard act to live up to. But Nishikant Kamat, seeking inspiration from a hit Tamil film “Kaakha Kaakha” manages just fine. alt

He gets incredible support from dialogue writer Ritesh Shah, who infuses every exchange on love (with the girl who won’t take no for an answer) and war (against drug peddlers) with a kind of lived-in warmth and familiarity.

Kamat, who earlier made “Mumbai Meri Jaan” on terrorism and the city of Mumbai, here has a blast bringing back the old-fashioned action hero. John Abraham has worked hard on his physique and his expressions too look like a cop who thinks falling in love would take him away from his line of duty.

Enter the vivacious effervescent girl nextdoor. Genelia with her multiplicity of expressions aptly plays “Bubbly” to this duty-bound “Bunty” who would rather not get entangled in human foibles like love and family. But the inevitable happens.

Kamat lovingly weaves the love story between the impish girl nextdoor and the gentle giant into the persistent call of duty, making sure the film’s claims to be an action film doesn’t get drowned in mush.

While the first hour is a loose bag of striking shootouts staged in crowded localities of Mumbai and some highly dispensable romantic songs, it is the second-hour where the narration really gathers momentum pitching the relentless cop against his chief adversary a drug dealer named Vishnu, played with arresting elan by debutant Vidyut Jamwal.

The man-to-man confrontations between Abraham and Jamwal have a rousing rugged resonance to them. They may make you squirm with their brutality. But the two look like well-matched opponents. Action director Allan Amin devises combats that convey a bone-crunching realism.

The two adversaries take care of the rest. John gives a finely pitched performance looking every inch like the action hero who can deliver that punch. He handles both the brutal and tender moments in the violence and romance, with ease.

Newcomer Vidyut Jamwal makes a formidable adversary. The menace is not only in the physique but the tone. This man means business. Some of the supporting cast is interesting too.

“Force” is a full-on action film with balls, brawn and brains. It’s the kind of virile cinema where action speaks louder than words. Blessedly the narrative secretes some fine dialogues and tender love story that goes with the turbulent territory. Nishikant Kamat balances out the colour khaki with sharp colours of humour and romance.

More Articles...

«StartPrev12345678910Next End»

Page 1 of 13

try again.