Ek Tha Tiger | Movie Review

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In the prologue chase-sequence where he is introduced as an intelligence officer on assignment in a foreign country, Salman Khan escapes his opponents by splurging money in an open market and subsequently camouflages in the crowd that is busy pouncing on the currency. Be rest assured that what follows would be 'paisa vasool' entertainment.

Tiger (Salman Khan) is an Indian intelligence officer who's sent by RAW to Dublin to keep an eye on a science professor. There he comes across Zoya (Katrina Kaif) and expectedly falls for her. Until it turns out that even Zoya is on an undercover mission. Now Tiger has to choose between duty and love.

Aditya Chopra sketches his story on the unusual premise of what would happen if an Indian intelligence officer falls in love with a Pakistani spy. The conflicts in the love story come quite naturally through the animosity between the two neighbouring nations, prevalent for decades. On a broader level the film implies how love can overpower all inherent differences. Yet it never makes a very conscious attempt to sound preachy or positive about the state-of-affairs between the countries. Chopra's story is credibly crafted into a riveting screenplay by Neelesh Misra and Kabir Khan.

At first instance, it seems like the love story is barging in the spy-drama. Until you realize that Ek Tha Tiger, largely, is a love story on the backdrop of an espionage thriller and not the other way round. Once we realize that, the romance track is never a hindrance. Rather the Indo-Pak spy couple lends the love story its uniqueness. Nevertheless there is no compromise on the spy setup of the film either. Director Kabir Khan commendably balances the love story and the spy drama, with each element taking precedence at different junctures in the film as per the requirement.

The beauty of the film is that, though the protagonist goes against his establishment for a girl from a rival country, you still root for him. Their integrity towards each other makes you overlook the fact that the two spies went rogue. Thereby Ek Tha Tiger is more of a rooted romance tale over a mechanical spy-thriller. Where it scores above most Indian espionage flicks (including the recent Agent Vinod) is that fact that though it frequently changes geographical boundaries, the narrative never wanders aimlessly.

Unlike most desi actioners where the stunts are often exaggerated, convoluted and commonplace, Ek Tha Tiger boasts of some imaginative action sequences smartly choreographed by Hollywood stunt coordinator Conrad Palmisano. It isn't of the existing variety where a dozen goons go flying in the air by hero's one kick. Kabir Khan strikes a perfect balance between heroism and realism in this department. So the background score or editing patterns don't have to be overblown for the impact. The tram sequence in first half and the freeway chase in the second is sure to invite applause in cinema-halls.

Despite a serious spy setup, the film has a very cool sense of humour. The tongue-in-cheek lines often make you smile even in the most unusual circumstances. Aseem Mishra's cinematography lends the film a grace that the genre demands, as he captures the essence of Ireland, Cuba, Istanbul and other countries with elan.

Salman Khan carries an urbane charm and looks uber-cool dressed in formals. He is resourcefully restrained sans his customary buffoonery. His acting ability is best exploited in this film after a long long time. Katrina Kaif is gorgeous as always and puts in a confident act. Her agility in action sequences adds to her conviction. And more importantly she shares terrific chemistry with Salman Khan, something that was missing in all their earlier pairings. Ranvir Shorey as Salman's associate makes for a good supporting cast. Girish Karnad and Gavie Chahal lend decent support.

Ek Tha Tiger, by far, is Salman Khan's most entertaining and accomplished works in recent times. Hope he takes the correct cues from this film and stays away from mediocrity henceforth.

Verdict: Very Good
Director: Kabir Khan
Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif

Released On : August 15,2012

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Jism 2 | Movie Review

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Directed by Pooja Bhatt, Jism 2 is the sequel to the 2003 hit Jism starring Bipasha Basu and John Abraham. The first film was easily one of the most sensual films of it’s time and this time around, with Canadian porn star Sunny Leone as the major-attraction, the makers promise a double doze of erotica.
Story: Jism 2 is about Izna (Sunny Leone), a prostitute by profession. One night, she sleeps with Ayaan (Arunoday Singh), an intelligence officer, who convinces Izna to help nab her ex-lover Kabir (Randeep Hooda). They travel all the way to Sri Lanka to get hold of the secret data, that helps Kabir kill several prominent politicians and other security officials.

Most of you would be wondering – If Jism 2 is one of the most erotic films to come out of Bollywood and if Sunny Leone, on debut, delivers as an actress?
Well, apart from the fact that it stars an adult actress, Jism 2 wouldn’t be considered ‘bold’ even if it released early last decade. Infact, the 2004 blockbuster ‘Murder’ was far more erotic and sexier. If titillation is sole reason for watching Jism 2, don’t bother. Apart from a few aesthetically shot love-making scenes and Leone’s cleavage revealing act, the film has little else to offer.
The pace is agonisingly slow. The story is non-existent and hardly ever moves. If you decide to watch the first 20 minutes, take a nap and watch the climax, you wouldn’t miss much – nothing at all actually, apart from a few beautiful songs and the stunning scenery of Sri Lanka.
As for Sunny Leone, she looks sexy and beautiful, but has a long way to go as an actress. It was a complex role to play – throughout the film Sunny’s character required her to pretend to be in love with someone else, while her real intentions were different.

I have loved Randeep Hooda’s performances in some of his recent releases like Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and Jannat 2, but here he’s good initially but hams in the second half, when his character suddenly goes psychotic. Arunoday Singh can’t act. When he was crying, the audience were laughing!
Also, several questions remain unanswered (spoiler warning). When exactly does Arunoday’s character fall in love with Sunny? Why does Randeep Hooda reveal his true identity so late? Why does Sunny believe Arunoday blindly? Who does she love?
Sunny’s character is flawed and confused. Since she keeps kissing both men, the audience is left confused too. The climax doesn’t work primarily for this reason – you don’t feel for any of the characters in the film.
Overall, Jism 2 has very little to offer apart from a bikini-clad Sunny Leone, couple of good songs and the seductive beaches and greenery of Sri Lanka. At the box-office, Jism 2 should do well in the first weekend and then drop from Monday.


Director: Pooja Bhatt
Producer: Pooja Bhatt, Dino Morea
Music: Arka Mukherjee, Mithoon, Abdul Baasith Saeed, Vicky Goswami, Rushik
Main Cast: Randeep Hooda, Sunny Leone, Arunoday Singh, Imran Zahid…
Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller, Adult, Crime
Banner: Fisheye Network Production, Clockwork Films Private Limited

Released On : Aug 03, 2012

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Kya Super Kool Hain Hum | Movie Review

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The astute business woman Ekta Kapoor clearly seems to be reaping maximum benefits from the forbidden fruit. The lady is publicly taking up all hushed, explicit or so called "adult" topics and giving it either a dramatic or a comic spin. Result? Her films have been selling like hot cakes. And once again keeping up with her style, the producer is back with a 'Politically incorrect' film as they are terming it, Kya Super Kool Hai Hum. Whether this too just like its predecessor rakes in the moolah or not remains to be seen.

Adi (Tusshar Kapoor) is a struggling actor and his roommate Sid (Riteish Deshmukh) a struggling DJ. While Adi resigns to doing despicable and tacky home shopping television ads such as that of fairness cream, constipating, fat loss etc. Sid gets reduced to DJing at Gujarati parties and also making money by using his pet pug Sakru for mating.

Dejected by their lives, Adi approaches an astrologer who predicts that a female will enter his life and be his lucky charm. Enters Simran (Neha Sharma). Adi proposes Simran in their first meet itself almost scaring her off. Simran soon takes to Goa. On the other hand Sid comes across Anu (Sarah Jane Dias) and after a disastrous first meet, falls for her. Adi chases Simran all the way to Goa along with Sid where the latter realizes even Anu is in Goa itself. Whether the two failures in life end up winning those two girls or not follows through a series double meaning dialogues and mad-cap situations.

Seven years ago, Kya Kool Hai Hum had ushered the concept of adult comedy. While critically the film was severely panned, the audience had lapped it up making it a roaring success. And the writer of the film Sachin Yardi made his comeback, this time as a director, promising to make his sequel all the more humorous. So does the filmmaker succeed? Partially yes, for the entire first half guarantees a mega laughathon. Replete with double entendre and slick editing with the story moving fast, the first half makes for an entertaining watch. It's commendable for a writer to create innuendos out of literally nothing!

However, the problem arises when too many sub-plots like that of Marlo (Anupam Kher) and 3G baba (Chunky Pandey) and the romantic track start interrupting the laugh riot in the second so much so that it leaves you disappointed by the end. A big issue with the film is its length. At 2hours 20mins, KSKHH ends up being too long-drawn and stretched. By this time, even the quality of humour goes down ranging from plain PJs to SMS jokes.

What works best for KSKHH is the stupendous comic timing between Riteish and Tusshar. The two along are responsible for maximum laughter in the film. While the other actors like Anupam Kher, Chunky Pandey, Kavin Dave etc. fail to even leave a smile on your face. Neha Sharma as well as Sarah Jane Dias succeed only in adding the glamour quotient to the film and have nothing more than that to offer.

To sum it up, Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum makes for a time pass one time watch. However, if for a better second half, the film would've worked more!

Star Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh, Neha Sharma, Sarah Jane Dias, Anupam Kher, Chunky Pandey and Rohit Shetty.

What’s Good: The comedy; some songs; Ritesh’s acting.

What’s Bad: Some stale jokes; the forced emotional quotient.

Loo Break: During the emotional scenes.

Verdict: Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum has some laughs, which may be enough for the producers to laugh their way to the bank.

Watch or Not: Watch it for the funny below-the-belt jokes.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars (Two-and-a-half stars)

Released On : July 27,2012

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Cocktail | Movie Review

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Cocktail follows the basic Bollywood genre-geometry of a love triangle. The good part about this one, unlike most love triangles, is that the three protagonists get to know who loves whom pretty early in the picture and the revelation isn't stretched till the climax. However, beyond a point, the film isn't able to use this element to its merit and falls for the regular range of spite-to-sacrifice sentiments of any triangular love story. Cocktail, basically, is the same prose with new grammar.

So the story is about a compulsive flirt Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) who gets into a no-strings-attached relationship with the hot-n-happening Veronica (Deepika Padukone). Girl-next-door Meera (Diana Penty) is literally the girl Gautam takes home to his mother (Dimple Kapadia) to cover-up his live-in with Veronica. Until by interval point his heart starts fluttering for Meera. And the rest as they say is 'history'.

The characterizations are basically been-there-seen-that. The guy is commitment-phobic until he meets his match and realizes what 'true love' is. The firang female has a frivolous attitude until she realizes she, too, is vulnerable to feelings. The introvert desi dame isn't aware of her own beauty until the boy makes her realize it. Further she goes in the let-go-love-for-friend mode.

The narrative never tries too hard to build the chemistry between the characters. Like Veronica gets a random stranger Meera home and they become the best of buddies. Or Gautam and Veronica just hit if off in two scenes. So do Gautam and Meera subsequently, and if it wasn't for the kiss at interval point, one wouldn't know cupid has cross-connected. Further Meera's sudden truce with her past love (Randeep Hooda) in the pre-climax seems half-baked. Yet, at the expense of conviction, what you don't mind is that the story keeps moving ahead without expending too much time on the obvious and inescapable elements of a love story.

The pacing drops in the second half, and one gets more impatient with predictability seeping into the plot. Evidently you know which girl would win in the end but you lose out to the protracted proceedings. In fact when the hero extensively proposes the heroine in the last scene, you just want the girl to say yes and get over with it.

Yet, despite all its conventionalism and inconsistencies, what still keeps you connected to the movie is its attitude to never take itself too seriously. The film is as much flippant as its protagonists and the scene tone remains subtle even in the most dramatic sequences. The humour is inherent and scenes like Saif's first encounter with Deepika or Dimple Kapadia's artificial respiration to Deepika are hilarious. Thereby after laughing on every formula of any love story, when this cocktail can't do away with the basic emotional ingredients of a love triangle, the film's nonchalant attitude backfires.

Anil Mehta's cinematography is picture perfect. Pritam's music is peppy and some new voices add freshness to the soundtrack.

From the cast, Deepika Padukone comes with the most impressive performance and is exceptionally good in the drunken scene where the happy-go-lucky Veronica shows her vulnerable side. And while she remains absolutely natural in her act, she looks stunningly sexy too. Saif Ali Khan is in his comfort zone in this romantic comedy and effortlessly charms girls (both on and off screen). Diana Penty comes with the requisite rawness that her character demands and is quite decent in her debut act. The minimalism in her looks often reminds of Giselle Monteiro's character from Love Aaj Kal. Dimple Kapadia comes as a pleasant change to the Punjabi-mom prototype in Bollywood and is quite likeable. Boman Irani does well in his short role. The talented Randeep Hooda gets no scope in his three-scene two-bit role.

To sum up, this one is old Cocktail in new bottle!

Verdict: Above Average
Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty

Released On : July 13,2012

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