Baby: the Daddy of many espionage flicks.

Being a fan of espionage movies like Mission: Impossible and Bourne series, I always wished if India could also produce such movies. Though it was quite late for Bollywood, the movies like Madras Cafe and D-Day were the movies that we hoped for.

This year's beginning was with another movie that doesn't lag behind in the quality of espionage genre. Yes I am talking about Baby.
The movie is a 2015 Indian espionage thriller directed by Neeraj Pandey (yes, the one from A Wednesday and Special Chhabis). It stars Akshay Kumar in lead role, along with Danny Denzongpa, Anupam Kher, Rana Duggubati, Tapsi Pannu, Kay Kay Menon in supporting roles.
The movie was fulfills my expectation and desire of a strong espionage thriller on the lines of Bourne Series. 
Not only it has big guns of Indian cinema like Akshay, Anupam Kher and Kay Kay Menon but also veterns from outside like Rasheed Naaz and Mikaal Zulfiqar ( both Pakistani veteran actors).  
I loved the dialogue of Menon in a particular scene: 

"Suna hai kasaab ko AC waala kamra diya tha. Kasaab se toh jyaada hi kiya humne".

Talking about the performance of Akshay Kumar, it appears that he can be forgiven for his performance in movies like Chandni Chowk To China (2009) and Joker (2013). About Neeraj Pandey, obviously, his work has been a masterpiece.

Must Watch: Apaharan

If any one can focus on social issues surrounding the Indian common people, specially hailing from the BIMARU states like UP and Bihar, it is none other than Prakash Jha. Here I present before you my review about the year 2005 movie Apaharan, starring Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan, Yashpal Sharma and Chetan Pandit. 

After the much hype of social issue- based movies after the success of his Gangajal (2003), Mr. Jha has successfully delivered this movie on the theme of corruption that compels an innocent person to get involved in the whole systematic network of kidnapping mafia, prevailing in Bihar.

If talk about the performances of the actors, this time, unlike in Gangajal, the majority share for the success of this movie has to be credited to Nana Patekar. Apart from it, Ajay Devgan has given his best in presenting the youth who gets trapped in the whole network of kidnapping mafia, which is headed by Gaya Singh (Yashpal) and nurtured by Tabrez Aalam (Nana).

Also, I will not lag behind in appreciating the performance of Mukesh Tiwari, who has played the role of an honest IPS officer.

Must Watch: Children of War

Even if the Indian audience loves the movies of heroes with six-pack abs or hot divas and thumbs down the real and intense historical movies like Madras Cafe, I admire the courage of the director Mritunjay Devrat for throwing focus on the genocide during Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. One should admire the effort of the director to present the intense violent scenes depicting rape of many Bangladeshi women. 

Also, the performance of Pawan Malhotra in negative role of a Pakistani Amy personnel, deserves applauds. Apart from him the late Farooq Shekh has also left his impact on cinema industry by his humble role in the movie.

In a nutshell, if you courage to swallow the reality behind the liberation movement of 1971, the movie Children of War will make you cry and compel you to applause the efforts of Mr. Devrat.

Queen: If SRK is King Khan, Kangana Ranaut is Queen Ranaut.

We must admire the trend of Bollywood that it is delivering such hat-ke (different) movies for fast few years. Lat year it showed us the hopes in the wraps of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Madras Cafe, D-day, Lootera. This year too it has kept our hopes pristine and all-time high. This hype is evident after we come across the movies like Queen.

Watching the dedicated performance of Kangana Ranaut, it can be said that our film industry has no more restricted entry for the male dominant stars. If there can be a King Khan, there can be a Queen Ranaut.

No other actress can emulate her performance in the movie. Her performance suits the theme of women empowerment through this movie. No doubt, she deserves a National Award for what she did to her role.

Lastly, the music by Amit Trivedi is in sync with the situation of the scenes of the movie and best suited to it. If Bollywood can open the doors for the cheaters like Anu Malik and Pritam, Trivedi is going to be last nail of their coffins.

Notable Role (7/1000): Mahesh Manjarekar (Kaante)

He was not the lead actor of the movie, but without him Kaante, (2002 year remake of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, 1992) would have been a worthless movie. In fact, he was best as an actor in this movie. It was through this movie, that he garnered the fame of an actor better than a director (though he directed and produced great movies like Vaastav).

The scenes of the movie are as follows:

Cops arresting Bali.

Bali Crying.

Interrogation by Bali.

Must Watch (Today's special): Rang De Basanti

Corruption is like a virus in the entire system of a nation, that needs a strong anti-virus to deal with it. This movie, though not an anti-virus, but was a means to produce anti virus for the system of a nation affected by the virus of corruption. If any Indian movie that could ignite the spark of revolution or revamping the corruption-infected nation, it was RDB. Embracing the mechanism of peaceful non- violent protest (candle march) and later switching to the desired mode of violence, this movie proved to be a blend of ideals that could change the Indian system or rather the system of any corruption infected nation.

Just like others, I also support the killing of the corrupt official (and it will not be called murder or Hatya rather it becomes Vadh) on the ground that such practice sounds correct on the lines of the Benthamite principle of maximum pleasure of maximum people with minimum pain for least number of people.

Also, this movie is best suited for the Martyr's Day (23rd march, 1931) as it not only shows the sacrifices of our revolutionary heroes but also how it can be imbibed in the actions of the youth.

I like dialogue of the movie:

"Jeene ke do hi tareeke hote hain. Ya fir jo chal raha hai use chalne do. Ya use badal ke dikhaao" (there are two courses of living a life- either let the things go their way or change the course of happenings). 

Lastly, the music of Rahmaan Saab  has never been such enthusiastic before. If the movie is a portrait, his music adds colour to it.

Behind Reel Facts (from iMDB):

• A.R Rehman worked on the music of this film for three years.
• India's official entry to the Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2007.
• Shah Rukh Khan was the original pick to play DJ, but the shooting for the film was in Delhi, and Khan was forced to decline because he was shooting Paheli (2005) at the time, and did not want to conflict schedules.
• The film was to be made both in Hindi and English versions. The English version was to be titled "Paint It Yellow". The plans for the English version were dropped subsequently.
• The role played by Siddharth was also initially offered to Farhan Akhtar. But Farhan was not ready to act.
• Aamir Khan was initially uncertain about taking on the role of DJ, as he was in his 40s and DJ was 25 years old Punjabi in the film. He eventually accepted, though, and hired a tutor to aid him in Punjabi speech and accents.
• Rang De Basanti is based on a poem written by Dushyant Kumar.
• Arjun Rampal was signed to do the film, but was irritated with director, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's indecisiveness about what he wanted to do with the characters and the script. He called him "very confused" and "unprofessional" and dropped out. Arjun Rampal also stated his regret in even agreeing to do the film in that he lost a lot of good work in the three months he spent committed to it.
• In India, the color of saffron represents sacrifice. When someone says, "Main rang de basanti", ("paint me saffron") it means that person is ready to be sacrificed for a great cause. saffron is also a predominant color in the movie.
• Shah Rukh Khan was the original choice for Flight Lieutenant Ajay Rathod's character, but he couldn't do it owing to his busy schedule. This cameo turned out to be the best bet of Madhavan in his career in Bollywood.
• Hrithik Roshan turned down the role of Karan (Siddharth).

Agneepath (2012): Sanjay Dutt is back.

This movie was in news since Hritik accepted the role played by Big B in the earlier Agneepath (1990). Though the names are same and plot of the movie is also, significant remake of the old Agnipath, there is a huge gap in both these.

While the old Agnipath was full of bold and emphatic performance of Amitab Bachchan (playing the role of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan) and was also known for his dialogue delivery, the 2012 Agnipath promises a new ray of hope to emulate the performance of the legendary Joker (obviously, the negative role Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight). This movie has kept the audience glued with the performance and style of Kaancha (role played by none other than Sanjay Dutt). 

In my opinion, India is close to getting a substitute of the Joker. His performance weights much more than that of the hero of the movie (the equation matches that of The Dark Knight in this sense). Though the dialogues of Hritik are not that bold as of Big B, his performance is well fitted to the role.

Apart from it, you can't ignore the role of Rauf Lala (played by Rishi Kapoor). This time, Rishi Kapoor has made a punching come-back to complement this movie. Even, sometimes the people might become confuse to choose the best villain between Kaancha and Rauf.

Music of the movie also deserves applauds, specially the song Abhi Mujhme Kahin.

The hidden facts.

• In Sanjay Dutt's 30 years career, this is the first time he appeared bald in a film.
• Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor last worked together in Sahibaan (1993) where both were lead heroes.
• The film was an official remake of the original Agneepath but several things were changed, like the backdrop of drugs was introduced, the reason for the death of Vijay's father was changed, Mithun's character was done away with, and Rishi Kapoor's new character was introduced.
• Hrithik Roshan sports a number of colorful vests in the film, actually those were white vests which his designers colored using dye.
• Hrithik told in an interview that while fighting with Sanjay Dutt he was really injured and his acting in the end was real.
• The scenes depicting Mandwa was shot in Diu in freezing temperatures. For the song Cheekni Chameli the set was created in Mumbai.

Haasil: kudos to Irrfan and Tigmanshu.

If there is any movie of the Bollywood that probably marks the identity of Allahabad and the college life of that city, it is Haasil. Entire movie is like a sweet dish (soaked in the sugar of Eastern U.P. dialect). 
Even the fans of Ranvijay Singh (character played by Irrfan Khan, for which he bagged Filmfare award for Best actor in negative role), have adopted the style of conversation in his way of dialoguebaazi. 

Credit goes to Tigmanshu Dhulia for the beautiful and real depiction of student politics and life. As we have already seen, he is both a good actor and a good director (except the crap Bullet Raja). Jimmy Shergil and other characters of the movie have also performed well in their characters, but they will always be way behind Irrfan.
Though I haven't watched this movie in a cinema hall, I can imagine that had I been in the hall, I would have witnessed taaliyon pe taali (applauses for his dialogues) for every dialogue of Irrfan Khan.

Had this movie not been produced, Bollywood wouldn't have witnessed a gem like Ranvijay Bhayya (oops... I meant Irrfan Khan).

Upcoming Bollywood: Gunday

With the promise of fun and entertainment, 2014 awaits the international actor of India, Irrfan Khan and two other upcoming and promising actors, after their success with Ishaqzaade and Ramleela. 

Hence, I present the trailer before you.

Releasing: 14th February, 2014

Bullet Raja: Disappointment from Mr. Dhulia

I missed first 10 minutes of the movie but I don't regret it. Its because, I just can't believe that this movie was directed from the director of great movies like Haasil, Pan Singh Tomar and Saaheb Biwi aur Gangster. This movie seems to be a disappointment and just a masaala movie to a great extent. 

However, in an interview, Mr. Dhulia himself said that he selected Saif Ali Khan because he wanted to generate revenue for his movie. But he would compromise with the quality of his movie and goodwill to such an extent, this was beyond my imagination. There were some questions that remained unanswered:

1. What was the need to introduce the martial arts expert Vidyut Jamwal as a crucial player in the whole game?
2. What was the need to kill Jimmy Shergil  for inciting Saif Ali Khan?
3. Was there any need to show a twist like encounter of Raja Mishra?
4. Could this movie be reformed as a good directional project?
5. Could this movie do well even in absence of the star casts like Vidyut, Gulshan Grover and Sonakshi Sinha?
6. Was there the need of dialogues like "jab aayenge toh garmi badhegi"?

I rate this movie 2.5 out of 5. Nothing much it deserves. Believe me. 

Madras Cafe: Movie of the year

It was the year 2004, when I was impressed with the performance of Kabir (John Abraham) in the movie Dhoom. Again it was the year 2006, when I was impressed the role of John Abraham in the copyright-infringing flick Zinda.

But his recent performance in the movie Madras Cafe proves his worth and the worth of his production house. In my opinion, this movie deserved a nomination from India for Academy Awards (Oscar). Failing such nomination, I think India has lost its hope of winning accolades at Oscar. It was one of the best movie on the diplomatic realities and the role of RAW.

Also, I can't forget the song Maula Sun Le Re, one of best songs of the year.