Tag: Shahrukh khan

JHMS Review: When Harry and Sejal don’t meet a good story

I’ve always left the theatre a little confused after watching an Imtiaz Ali movie; always questioned whether I’ve liked it or not. There’d be something really good and something that just doesn’t make sense. But for the first time, I’m certain of how Harry met Sejal is. It is a badly conceived movie.

How I wished for a sad ending to make little sense of the story. But hey, the director assumes we all want a happy ending, right?

How I wanted a wee bit extra sadness, a little more pain to allow myself to feel as to why is Harry like this? For the puzzle to fit, on why Harry had to meet a Sejal, just doesn’t get answered! But that’s not the only problem for this movie. There’s just lack of depth in the story. Except in two characters’ chemistry. The only saving grace.

But how far do you think that can steer a story which is going nowhere but to the usual clichéd ending of most of Imtiaz’ movies. Sure, there’s a good dose of realism and few scenes just hit you real hard without being grand. The brooding Shahrukh is unmatchable and so is the ‘layak’ Anushka, both of them capture the nuance of their characters perfectly. But. Yes, and a big B.U.T. There’s just nothing else there in the movie! A couple of scenes, once-in-a-while, is all that’s good about the movie.

Being a movie where the tour guide is the main protagonist and the entire movie is shot in Europe, there’s hardly much of Europe that the lens captures. Maybe taking a leaf out of Zoya Akhtar’ ZNMD would have helped? But hey, Imtiaz wants to stick to his own formula of loving someone who is about to get married! How many more times should we be watching that same damn thing?

Songs get added to the movie out of no reason. There’s an entire addition to Harry’s colleague’ wedding, which is just not required. The only possible explanation for that is to make Shahrukh wear a turban and touch upon his ‘Punjabi roots’. A flashback on the same which doesn’t pan out into anything substantial again adds to the irrelevancy.

The story follows a boring direction which Imtiyaz has taken us on numerous occasions.

Shahrukh Khan embraces Harry and so does Anushka Sharma in being the Gujju-accented girl out to search for her ring. As stupid as the idea of her finding it across countries is how she finally ends up getting it back!

The script is stupid and if it weren’t for the two stars in the movie, would appear like written in a hurry. And it’s only because of them, I’m giving a 2 star to this film. Watch it only if you’re a fan or a weekend with nothing else to do.

Dear Zindagi Review: It’s a therapy for all

Dear Zindagi is about finding life. A free life. A life Kaira (Alia Bhat) needs but doesn’t know where to find. She’s confused and complex like any other girl and refuses to let anyone in. The story tries to simplify the complexities of her life by making her ask the right questions to it.

The fact that Alia clearly over-shadows even Shahrukh in the movie speaks volume of the amount of talent she has. The vulnerability of her character through various stages of life oozes out, along with a multitude of other emotions, all of it very real.

The story is about relationships. In one scene where Alia laments in front of her Psychiatrist( or Dimag ka doctor a referred in the movie), that she’s never going to find anyone in life. Shahrukh remarks that why do we put the strain of everything on that ONE relationship? Why cannot we have a relationship for our varied emotions? This is the essence of what the film wants to talk about. That there’s more to  Zindagi than breakups or finding that “one”.

Dear Zindagi covers a lot of ground by covering the “Log kya kahenge?” part, apart from relationships with parents, siblings, friends and of course the variety of “Chairs”. (You’ll get this when you watch the movie).

Of course, you do end up with mixed feelings due to the range of questions that pop up in your head, which makes you question the narrative occasionally. Especially when you realize that everything centres around Kaira and her Zindagi. But then, this is her story. And only her Zindagi.  And that’s where Gauri Shinde’s story bounces back ad you try to fit it all together.

SRK anchors the character of Dr. Jehangir Khan with the ease and elegance with which he gives out his interviews. He underplays the character with such depth that you don’t feel anyone else could have done better.

Characters like, Jacky (played by Yashaswini Dhayama) and Fattu (played by Ira Dubey) also bring a natural charm and playfulness to the story and vivacious friendship. The character of Ali Zafar (who plays RUMI) is something that has been written really well. The story also has Kunal Kapoor who adds his own charm.

But in the end, Dear Zindagi belongs to Alia who shoulders the movie all on her own. The vibe that this girl brings along is magical and with Reema’s direction, the therapy sessions in help, not only Alia but the Audience as well.

I’m going with 3.5/5 for Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi. This slice-of-life film is a therapy for mature audiences. If you’ve liked movies like Kapoor & Sons or Piku or Gauri’s other movie English Vinglish, then you’ll definitely like this one as well.

Fan Movie Review: Fan isn’t FANtastic, but Shahrukh will make you believe it is

We all have been waiting for this. Fans, non-fans, the closet fans and everyone who watches Bollywood movies have been waiting for SRK to make a film and not blow up another marketing puff in front of them. Looks like he finally listened to everyone. When will Shahrukh not make masala movies ? When will he work with actual directors ? When do we see a movie where he acts?

Fan is the answer to all those questions. It’s Shah Rukh Khan all the way. And no one else. Fan isn’t FANtastic but Shahrukh will make you believe it is. Remove him, and you have just another story.

There is a fine line between being a fan and crossing it to being obsessed. Fan is about one such fan whose life is a result of this obsession.

Maneesh Sharma, who has directed “Band Baaja Baraat”, “Ladies Vs Ricky Behl” and “Shudh Desi Romance”, has a knack of bringing out the typical Dilli wala characters live onto the screen, is at the helm here. His crisp storytelling and holding the plot to not move out of place has been his biggest achievement. Apart from making sure he uses SRK in evey possible way.

Fan is all about SRK. I’m pretty sure that people will be raving about the character of Gaurav played by Shahrukh, which undoubtedly everyone should, but it is playing the superstar that he is flawless too. The subtle arrogance of a star, the frustration of too many expectations and anger if things don’t go his way. Aryan Khanna is good at what he does and doesn’t shy away from feeling proud of what he has acheived.

The best part about Fan is, it never treats the hysterical Gaurav as the villain and neither it turns the superstar Aryan Khanna as the hero/victim. Maneesh loves to play with gray hinges and Fan helps him put forth that idea of reality through the story lens. Definitely, no one could have done it better than the superstar himself.

Fan isn’t bereft of plot-holes though. The first half, with its fast pace and sleek story unfolding, doesn’t give that away but the second half initially exposes the evenly spread out flaws. The extremities of how fans and media treats you doesn’t accurately match up to reality and follow a similar trajectory of Bollywood drama, and neither does a fan stuck in the 90’s in the year 2015. Perhaps it was easier for Maneesh for this transition of Gaurav from an obsessed fan to someone out there to destroy the star.

Ignoring the evident flaws is not very difficult, and as soon as the amazing chase sequences follow, you’ll soon be lost into “What would Gaurav do next?”.

And O.M.G, the action! Frankly, I wasn’t expecting an action of this sort and I was blown away by what I saw. There are 3 amazingly done Action sequences which propells the movie to another level. I was wondering who is the Action Director of Fan ?

It is Oh Se Young, who has previously also acted as action director for Avengers 2! Undoubtedly, the action here was bound to be awesome.

This is where I usually add inferences to the rest of the cast, but in this Double SRK bonanza, there’s hardly anyone who made a lasting impact. Such is the aura of Khan in Fan. There is Sayani Gupta as Arya Khanna’s PR, Shreya Padgaonkar as Gaurav’s one-sided love interest, Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin as Gaurav’s parents, who’ve helped the plot develop further.

The reason you should watch Fan, apart from the excellent work by SRK, is that it leaves you with a thought. The film ends with Gaurav saying, “Rehnde yaar, tu nai samjhega”, but you will.

I’m going with 3/5 for Maneesh Sharma’s Fan.

Fan isn’t FANtastic but Shahrukh will make you believe it is.

Chennai Express: My Review

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone

Director: Rohit Shetty

RunTime: 141 minutes

Entertainment is what you should seek before boarding the Chennai express and you might just get it, for the most part of it, albeit some tamil-telugu movie rip offs and clichés put together in many of the scenes. Nevertheless, the pace, Shahrukh’s performance, Deepika’s attempt in tamil and of course the Entertainment quotient attached through the journey keeps you seated in your berth, although doesn’t offer anything different.

chennai express movie review
The story is about Rahul (Played by Shahrukh Khan as always: P) and his accidental trip to a village near Chennai where Meena’s Dad, a don (Meena played by Deepika padukone and Sathyaraj playing her Dad) rules and forcefully wants her to be married off to another of his kind. She flees her home, only to be caught by the goondi (as she calls it) of her powerful dad. But this time she has company, Rahul ending up becoming a part of it all. The whole saga of running away, ultimately falling in love in the due process and fighting for their love in typical south-Indian movie style is what Chennai Express offers you.
Shahrukh charms his way through with witty one liners delivered effortlessly and this might just be the funniest that you have ever came across him before in a complete comic role. The king shows why he is called a king.

Deepika padukone in chennai express
Deepika tried hard to match up the Tamil accent and language, the effort is visible, but appears a stereotypical caricature in most of the parts. But makes up for it, with her chemistry with Shahrukh. Emoting has always been a big addition to her role-play, and she does it beautifully apart from looking beautiful in kanjeevaram sarees.
When it comes to direction and depiction, Rohit Shetty has used Tamil language as it is used, rather than accented Hindi version which hardly anyone in the rural parts of TN speak. Kudos to him for not falling prey to “making tit easy for the audience” rather than telling the story the way it should be. Scenes where the characters shift to Antakshari mode in order to talk something secretive are done creatively.
There’s spoofs filled in between from old SRK movies, the famous DDLJ train scene being one of the highlights. Ridiculous for times like ours but works surprisingly. The south’s’ version of North-stereotyping has also been shown, perhaps a first for a mainstream Indian-movie.
Cinematography is an integral part and helps the narration sail with Srks way of letting the story come to life. Shots are breathtaking, the south was never shown with so much elegance, and the sets are made amazingly well.
First half is entertaining and funny, while the second half tried to describe the romance between SRK and Deepika. The idea here was that deepika fells for srk before he does. Rohit tried to this “love bloom”, and the climax all in the second half. Like his Golmal brand of comic movies, where everything is fitted at the end of the spectrum. Although this makes it looks a little shabby. Not that the chemistry between the pair doesn’t work, but it’s the story that finally decides that it just cannot forego all the tried-and-tested tricks of movie making, and falls in the trap of giving an ending which we have seen many times.
Songs are good and few for a Shahrukh movie, but does their job of lending support to the plot and are a way to celebrate the North-south diversity, differences and unity. The shots taken in some of the songs are breathtaking.
The film works due to the banter between the lead pair, and resonate the north-south tiff but finally giving way to love. Instead of continuing with the slap-stick comedies, the come-as-it-may funny banter does well in the film. If not for the clichéd ending, with almost the same dish to offer eventually, it falls short of being a great entertainer. Not that it doesn’t provide you that, but in packets mostly spanning the first half of the movie.
For a festival season and a commercial tone underlying, Chennai express is fun to board if you are okay with eating the same dish for dinner, which you had in lunch, served with genuine jokes which are fun.
I’m going with a 2.5 for Chennai Express, enjoy your weekend if you don’t mind watching “nothing-new-yet-entertaining stuff”. It’s sure to “Ready-steady-po” towards box-office success.

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