Not A Love Story

Making a film on a real life incident is certainly not easy. First, it's important to get the facts right and second the daunting task to make it entertaining/interesting enough with a rock-solid screenplay. Maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma who has the knack of making even the fictional films look real takes up this daunting task and comes up with Not A Love Story; a film based on the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case. With excessive opposition being faced by RGV for dealing with such a controversial subject, it only remains to see what kind of treatment the filmmaker gives it.

Anusha Chawla (Mahie Gill) is an aspiring actress who leaves her family, her boyfriend Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) and her hometown Chandigarh to pursue her dreams in Mumbai city. After facing months of struggle and persistence by Robin to come back, Anusha finally gets a role in courtesy a casting director Ashish (Ajay Gehi). Friendship happens between the two and after a drunken party night the two end up sleeping together. The very next day Anusha's possessive boyfriend lands into her apartment and in a fit of rage stabs Ashish to death. Afraid of not being caught, the couple butcher the body into pieces, dumps them into bags and burns it. The dead body comes to haunt them as inspector (Zakir Hussain) nabs the culprit.

Having a ghastly topic such as the brutal and callous murder of Neeraj Grover, one does expect some hard-hitting screenplay from RGV who's had gory and gruesome films like Rakht Charita in the past. However, this time around he completely shifts focus from the slasher element making the film lose its impact. The entire first half fizzles out and even the gruesomeness of cutting the body into small pieces fails to hit you. It's the second half that holds the attention of the audience. With the major murder scene being executed quickly in the first half itself you least expect the second half to be good. But the drama quotient that RGV brings in with crisp editing in the latter part of the film makes the audience glued to it. The best part about the film is that it doesn't try looking out for a judgement. Instead it focuses on the emotions and situations of the couple that take them behind the bars.

RGV's obsession with maverick camera work goes to a whole new level altogether with NALS as he tries to create shots never before seen in Hindi cinema. However, one cannot call them radical and path-breaking because in more cases than it makes your head-spin leaving you nauseous. Even some of the shots are cheap and vulgar with many a leg shots and breast shots.

The background score and music could've been way better. It comes across as very shoddy, loud and jarring. Specially the single track Yai re yai re (from Rangeela) being repeatedly used, as a full-fledged track, as Anusha's ring tone, in slow version in the background etc is so annoying that you either want to chop your ears off or stab the filmmaker for doing so.

On the acting front both Mahie Gill and Deepak Dobriyal deliver outstanding performances. Deepak as the obsessive lover of Anusha deserves applauds for getting into the skin of the character.

All in all courtesy the poor storytelling, Not A Love Story fails to make an impact

Chatur Singh Two Star

Call it sheer friendship sakes or major money being offered, film celebs often end up making exceptions in the films they chose and come up with a below standard affair. Sanjay Dutt's Chatursingh Two Star can be called one such film. From the filmmaker who last made Nehle Pe Dehla with Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan comes this comic caper with meagre publicity and a dated look. With Not A Love Story which is making way to headlines every single day owing to the controversies surrounding it, the box-office fate of this film seems in doldrums.

As the tag line suggests, Chatursingh is a dimwit cop who knows everything about nothing. Wherever he goes he causes mayhem and destruction by his sheer stupidity. Every cop runs away by the sight of him and even his senior wants to get rid of him. But by pure chance he lands himself into one of the biggest cases that of Agricultural minister YY Singh's (Gulshan Grover) murder. The prime suspect in that is YY Singh's secretary Sonia (Ameesha Patel). In order to catch the killer, Chatursingh takes off on a mission to South Africa. How he causes mayhem wherever he goes with his antics and foolhardy is what the film is all about.

The least you say about Chatursingh the better as in a long time a film as shoddy and absurd as Chatursingh has made it to celluloid. It is devoid of any reason to watch it. Not only is the script headless and directionless but even the screenplay and dialogues are second-rate. It's actually a plight of the cinegoers to see their superstar Sanjay Dutt, who's given innumerable hits in the past and has wooed young and old, doing a sham such as this. Not only he seems disinterested in the project but his appearance too is very tacky, old and haggard. Throughout the film he has big eye bags below his eyes and a paunch on his belly making him look really old. If Sanjay Dutt was bad then Ameesha Patel is unbearable. She too comes across as a sagging old woman desperately trying to clutch to the last stage of her acting career in the film industry. Her item song in the film where she wear a raunchy red sari with deep red lipstick smudged on her lips, she looks as tacky as she could ever be.

Even the side-kicks like Suresh Menon, Satish Kaushik, Shakti Kapoor and Anupam Kher fail to make anyone laugh and ham almost in the entire film. Even the music of the film is below average. It's out of sheer angst for having wasted 2 and a half hours of mine do I say this and Chatursingh indeed would remain as one of the terrible films Sanjay Dutt has worked on.

Over all, Chatursingh Two Star fails miserably and would best be avoided. Watch any other Sanjay Dutt's comedy film instead.

Aarakshan

First things first. Is "Aarakshan" pro or anti reservation? The intricacies of this cleverly-written film do not allow us the luxury of arriving at any definitive conclusion on the matter. For or against job reservation ceases to be the core issue in "Aarakshan" after a point. The film is fully pro-education, that's for sure.

What we come away with in this deftly told story of socio-political exploitation is a protagonist who is so stubbornly idealistic he could only be played by a super-hero.

Super-heroes need not wear underwears over their trousers, nor their hearts on their sleeves. It could be a maths teacher who enjoys educating successive generations without thinking of promotions and perks.

The educationist in Prakash Jha's film, as played with supreme magnetism by Mr Bachchan, is a man of all seasons. What he does with unnerving effectuality is to tell us that our educational system is fatally flawed. And it's just not enough to talk about it.

When Dr Prabhakar Anand senses he can no longer fight the corrupt educational system from the inside, he moves out, starts educating girl children from a tabela owned by a benign peasant (Yashpal Sharma, a regular in Prakash Jha's cinema and in splendid form here).

The portions where we see Prabhakar Anand's awakening as a grassroot educationist is so closely aligned to Amitabh Bachchan's image of the actor of the masses that you feel the idealism of the educationist somewhere noiselessly mingles with the actor's ability to slip into super-hero's roles without flying physically.

This film levitates Mr Bachchan in far more subtle ways. He plays a man with the gumption to say no to a system of education that progressively favours purchased merit. Spearheading the educational racket in "Aarakshan" is Manoj Bajpayee playing his coaching-institute wheelerdealer part with over-the-top gusto.

Towards the end when all hell breaks loose, and Bajpayee's character is seen pounding with his fists a steamroller meant to mow down Dr Prabhakar Anand's idyllic educational spot, a character whispers, "He has lost his mind."

Well, precisely. There is much in Prakash Jha's kingdom that is rotten. The characters on the negative side of the educational fence are uni-dimensional and sport expressions accordingly.

To lift the tale from the discernible blemishes (spotless Nehru jackets for the principal character in every sequence, over-pancaked women playing supporting roles, too much attention to getting the commercial language like the mandatory songs, right) there are the high point all of which gather momentum in the second-half when the film tells us with punctuated passion, that something can be done to change Indian mindsets that encourage educational malpractices, that grasroot education is the only feasible remedy to the corrosion of the entire educational system.

The sequences showing Prabhakar Anand teaching maths in a tabela with ample support from his daughter (Deepika Padukone), and two students from different social stratas (Saif Ali Khan and Prateik) convey the warmth of an idealism that we lost in our cinema since the days of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's "Satyakam".

The narration moves forward entirely through the voices of the male actors who are largely a part of a very confused educational system in a country where marks on report cards determine an individual's career.

Merit is the main issue in this meritorious film. The performances range from the loud to the lyrical, depending on whether the camera moves away from Mr Bachchan or stays close to him. He brings to the part of the conscientious and immovable educationist a kind of emphatic idealism that would look highly inappropriate in any other actor. With his imposing presence Mr Bachchan never lets the character's high ethics down.

Among the other actors Saif Ali Khan scores very highly in sincerity, subtlety and sheer screen presence. Playing a Dalit boy who still irons his own clothes (a bit overdone, the drama of the damned) Saif moves through the motions of social protest and individual outrage with stealth and conviction.

In fact the one deep flaw in the film is that the relationship between the characters played by Mr Bachchan and Saif of the deeply-committed benefactor and the indebted but conflicted protege, is not given ample room to grow in Anjum Rajabali's flawed but brilliant script.

But then there is so much that you carry away from the film that the flaws fade away from consideration. What we are left with is a film that tackles a sensitive and topical issue with confidence and vigour, not allowing us the luxury to love the heroes or hate the villains. Though an easy and fluent grace is often found to be missing in the narration, the principal issue remains education. And that's never secondary.

Phhir

This is one film that has been stuck in the pipeline since 2 years. And finally when it sees the light of the day it's up against a stiff competition from the multi-starrer overhyped film Aarakshan. So does it stand a chance? I wonder!

Kabir Malhotra (Rajneesh Duggal), a renowned doctor marries Sia (Roshni Chopra). One day Sia disappears without a word. Disha (Adah Sharma) a person who can foresee things by some special ability helps Rajneesh with clues that take him closer to unravel the mystery of his missing wife. How while finding his wife he stumbles upon his past and how the tale takes a complete twist is what follows through the rest of the plot.

Phhir is a combination of supernatural thriller and romance. If the filmmaker could possibly add other genres like comedy, drama et all I am sure he may have done that too as the way he twists his story to blend the suspense, romance and supernatural elements of spirits, previous birth, reincarnation etc. is not only bizarre but amusing. If you keep aside the supernatural part, the suspense bit of it is still decent with the twist of the wife going missing making you apply your brains.

The intercutting in the film is pretty intelligently used but the problem is that filmmaker Girish Dhamija makes overuse of it reducing its impact. The setting is the only thing that stands out in the film. The director has meticulously kept the backdrop intact. Rajneesh Duggal, Adah Sharma and Roshni Chopra all are decent in their parts. A glaring error in the film is the background score and the out of focus scenes. The songs running in the background never matches with the situation going on screen. While there are quite a few scenes going out of focus.

To sum it up, Phhir is one film that you cannot think about watching again.

Chala Mussaddi

Comedy and Action are two hot selling genres of Hindi cinema and filmmakers are always in a lookout for scripts providing either of the two. So much so that they have also turned to small screen for inspiration. So while the celluloid adaptation of super hit comedy show Khichdi received thunderous response from cine-goers and the film turned out to be an instant hit, it only remains to be seen what will be the fate of yet another TV Show Office Office that goes on to make it to the big screen.

The film starts with a cop asking Musaddi Lal what's his crime. His reply - that he is a common man. It then goes into a flashback where retired school master Musaddi Lal Tripathi (Pankaj Kapur) goes on a pilgrimage to fulfil his dead wife Shanti's (Farida Jalal) last wish of immersing her ashes in 4 holy sites. He comes back after 3 months only to realise that his pension is stopped. He goes to the pension office to find out about it and much to his agony gets to know that he is declared dead in their records. How he claims himself to be alive and how he deals with corrupt bureaucrats like Patel (Deven Bhojani), Bhatiya (Manoj Pahwa), Shukla (Sanjay Sharma), Pandey oops Pandeyji (Hemant Pandey) and Ushaji (Asawari Joshi) is what follows through the rest of the plot.

With having a huge fan base for Office Office, pulling the mass to the ticket windows isn't really an ordeal. But the challenging task is to not let them leave the cinema hall disappointed. Maybe, filmmaker Rajiv Mehra gets bogged down by this pressure itself and ends up making a trite film. Despite having brilliant comic timing between all the actors, the film turns out to be disappointing and the entire blame goes to the script. With almost every story or bureaucratic department being covered in the serial itself, the film ends up re-creating a story that was already aired on the small screen as one of the episodes. The only advantage Rajiv gets is that his story of pension still remains relevant in the corrupt system of India.

There are a few jokes here and there that too a few giggles but they don't have a lasting effect and the weight of sitting through the entire film comes down heavy on the audience. Also the length of the film is an issue. The climax appears to be going on for eternity and ends up leaving the viewer exhausted. Had it been for crisp editing the film could've been better.

On the brighter side, all the characters are as humorous as before and it's a delight watching them. Even the new inclusion Gaurav Kapur as Musaddi Lal's son Bunty delivers a great performance. The setting of Delhi is subtle and endearing.

To sum it up, Chala Musaddi Office Office is a disappointing fare with having nothing new to offer.

I Am Kalam

The boy is a dreamer. One look at the former President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on television and Chotu decides to call himself Kalam. Kalam believes every child has the right to education.

Without the least display of pity or preachiness, debutant director Nila Madab Panda creates a world of infinite hope and minuscule joys for his precocious unlettered but smart protagonist Chotu.

The wispy but firm-handed narration weaves through Chotu's relationships with various characters in his life... his uncle, the dhaba owner Bhatti, which is played with endearing warmth by Gulshan Grover, the jealous Bachchan-crazy recruit at the dhaba Laptan (Pitobash, natural in his unsophisticated meanness), the free-spirited French tourist Lucy (Betarice ordeix), and above all, Chotu's rapport with the Rajasthani royalty Ranvijay Singh (Husaan Saad), a kind lonely aristocrat boy who eagerly befriends Chotu to share his luxurious but solitary life with.

The shared moments between Chotu and his motley crew of compelling characters are tender and genuine. The characters are never slotted or allowed to become stereotypical. They convey a kind of free-flowing casualness that makes them real and yet dramatic in a subtle way.

The film's social message of education-for-all is underlined but never italicized. It's left to the boy protagonist Harsh Mayar to bring out the theme's inherent message without making the plot heavy or didactic.

Mayar with his unassuming swagger and artless smile brings to the film a rare intelligence and humour. National award, did they say? The boy deserves much more.

The first-time director tends to over-simplify the complexities of the plot towards the end when in a quest for a flashy climax he collects all the characters at an extremely manufactured crisis point.

But the clumsiness of some episodes doesn't take away from the film's intrinsic warmth and gentleness. The narration glides through Chotu-Kalam's adventures with ease and fluency creating the fantasy-driven hopeless world of an underprivileged child without pity of sentimentality.

The last shot shows the 'prince' and the 'pauper' traveling happily together in the same school bus. Socialism has arrived. Abdul Kalam must be smiling at this Utopian dream of finale. But then isn't that what cinema does? Offer hope, create a dream world and exchange the harsh reality of the outside world with a magical alternative.

"I Am Kalam" does all of this. Must be watched for its sincere effort to carry forward the world of the child with the same mellow maturity of vision as the recent "Stanley Ka Dabba" and "Chillar Party".

Gandhi To Hitler

Gandhi To Hitler
Director: Rakesh Ranjan Kumar
Actors: Raghuveer Yadav, Neha Dhupia
Rating: *



“Dr Goebbels ko bulao,” Adolf Hitler yells from his study. “Bulao” (bring ‘em on), you say (in your head). Given ‘Mungeri Lal’ Raghuveer Yadav is the Hitler in blue contact lenses, you wonder if ‘Dr Dang’ or ‘Gabbar’ will land up for Dr Goebbels. He’s an Andheri actor all right, lieutenant to the Fuehrer of the Third Reich in his final days at the bunker.
It’s roughly the film’s first scene. The stage’s set. You know. This is a fancy dress show. Naseer (pedophile from the movie Page 3) plays architect Albert Speer. He shakes his head when Hitler commands, “Yeh saare pull uda do (blow up all the bridges).” Uda do. Seriously.
The bunker bears a dull, grey tone. It seems cold in here. Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds) seems to have that effect on all filmmakers worldwide, B-grade, A-grade, who cares. The ones here are original.
The Fuehrer, as you’d know, was a shamed failure to his nation. Just as Gandhi was father to his. We watch Mahatma’s pravachans (preachings) on non-violence, while Hitler, the maniac, faces his death. Gandhiji is also in the process of posting a letter to Hitler.
But this is not the only letter being read out through the movie. There are quite a few actually, which a Punjabi soldier (Aman Verma) reads out in his head to his wife back in the village. Punjabi soldiers? Yup. They belong to Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army. With the fall of Berlin, they’ve decided to walk it back to India!
What do these characters – Gandhi, Hitler, Aman Verma -- have to do with each other, or the film itself? Doesn’t matter. It’s sheer genius that the filmmakers find enough in this time-space continuum to break into an upbeat Holi song here, a couple of good quality ghazals there....
Hitler’s nervous. You can tell. Towards the end of the movie, his body shakes like he’s getting epileptic fits. His partner, Eva Braun, that’s Neha Dhupia, of course, can’t see him like this anymore: “Some music, my Fuehrer? Main aapko aisa nahin dekh sakti.”
“Theek hai, says Hitler. “Kuch acchha sa laga do! (Put on something interesting).” This stuff’s hilarious. If only one didn’t have to watch a whole frikin’ film for it.