Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Starring: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Prakash Raj, Arbaaz Khan, Vinod Khanna                                                        Picture source: Wikipedia   I am tempted to pull out my review of the original Dabangg and paste it here, so similar are the two films from Arbaaz Khan’s stable. Same story, same actors, same references and the same ebullient Salluism. Only Zandu balm has been replaced by Faavicol and Kareena Kapoor Khan has given a pelvic push to Malaika Arora Khan. Having said this, there might have been some correctives in this one. Sonakshi, for one, is looking gorgeous and also slim in her chiffons. But this is not about anyone, anyone other than Salman Khan and the camera unabashedly worships his presence here singularly with shirt, without shirt, with muscles, without  pause, with chutzpah and without...

Picture source: Wikipedia Starring: Akshay Kumar, Asin, Raj Babbar, Mithun Chakraborty, Himesh Reshammiya Rating 4/10 Ikattar, bahattar, teehatar, chauhatter — yes, one does go on counting — rather desperately — how many more minutes he or she has to sit through this brainless blunder from the Akshay stable. Considering Khiladi has always been a big player in this genre, one was really bewildered to see how astray Akshay and his purported charisma had gone in 786, the seventh in the series.  Besides Akshay looking flabby and disinterested in the entire proceedings is only one of the many reasons this one doesn’t click. An over the top attempt to cash in on the public’s penchant to go in for kitsch with a promise of humour, Khiladi 786 fails to keep you there for most part of the movie.  There is no storyline of any worth, there is no sizzling chemistry between Akshay and Asin — the latter going for a strange man who is always behind bars for...

Starring: Gerrard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid At: DT Cinema & others Rated: 5/10 Gerard Butler’s golden locks, Irish accent and muscular frame pulls you into this one much like the sex-starved soccer moms who attack him when their children are kicking the ball midfield and also knocking the coach down for sex in his own bed! But beyond the much too overt sexgressor in Katherine Zeta Jones who seeks sexual favours from this groovy coach in lieu of getting him a presenter’s job in ESPN, there are many more leading ladies doing a two-bit job — like a much-wasted Ema Thurman as a socialite wife of a money throwing hyper suspicious husband in Dennis Quaid.  These encounters make for a light comedy but not an entirely engaging one. The romance lies in Butler’s fixation for his ex-wife who shows neither vibes nor inclination to be with. Mildly interesting one this — but only if your heart beats for Butler. Source: The Pioneer, December 9, 2012

Picture source: Wikipedia Starring: Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerjee, Kareena Kapoor Rated: 6.5/10 Aamir Khan was right about  Talaash . It is definitely not a thriller. But yes, as he insisted, it is quite a suspense! A slow, tugging suspense which defies the straitjacket of a mystery movie which generally draws its flesh and blood from pace.  Writer-director Reema Kagti has bravely refused to speed up in this one, preferring instead to go with the tide of a super slow build-up, based on a detailed investigation, incidentally going nowhere in most part of the film.  So, it is to the credit of her strong storyline that till the very last, you are unable to fathom what’s going on. Cynics may say, ‘exactly! Really there’s nothing going on so there is nothing to fathom’! But that’s not the real picture here.  A lot goes on in  Talaash  but mostly in the pychological warfare that its characters, mainly its lead inspector Shekhawat, wage with themselves....

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Michael Sheen, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Hale, Kellan Lutz At: PVR & others Rated: 4.5/10 Well, the best thing about  Breaking Dawn Part II  is that the saga is over — over for good. That is, if Stephenie Meyer does not get compulsively greedy and gives in to a one last one from her in the  Twilight  series — the same story but from Edward Cullen’s point of view, not Bella’s, this time. The trailors looked good, the fire in Bella’s eyes seemed to make up for the lack of colour in her personality otherwise; the expanse of snow-ridden heights were captivating — but all that was in the trailer. The movie is a disappointment on many counts. It fails to hold on to your interest as the romance between Bella and Edward is a pale shadow of its former self. Even the antics that could have livened up the newborn vampire in Bella are merely customary. Their daughter lo...

Starrimg: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Gerard Depardieu Ang Lee’s  Life of Pi  is a stunning masterpiece on many levels, an unusual story told in a manner defying known standards of imagination. First and foremost, it is an unprecedented visual treat, the likes of which will be rarest of rare in Hollywood’s future too. Second, though no less importantly, it stuns you with a compelling screenplay on a book that most bigwigs in Hollywood, including Lee himself, flicked aside saying it was a subject impossible to put on screen. It is an adventure story with so many thrilling twists and turns that the slowness of the proceedings does not even once makes its presence felt, not even when most of the film pans out on a boat with a boy and tiger in the middle of an ocean. And just when you settle down thinking it is an adventure fantasy, the filmmaker forces you to introspect on many a profound question. While he is doing so, he also gives you a new look ...

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma At: PVR & others Rated: 7/10 It is an unreal romance, seemingly illogical, somewhat unreasonable and a tad regressive too. It is not top of the line Yash Chopra either. And considering that the crescendo wizard AR Rahman made the music, you can call it muted. Gulzar, too, has written much better lyrics than he does for Jab Tak Hai Jaan. So the obvious conclusion would be that this is an unusually flat one from the House of YRF. An aged swan song by the one and only king of romance Yash Chopra — a little bit of everything, yet not really anything. But wait. If you rush to conclusions, you will go absolutely wrong. For, the truth is that despite a varying degree of all the above hometruths put together,  Jab Tak Hai Jaan  is strangely gripping, a slow and steady winner that rings in old-world romance after a long gap — clean, intense, unpretentious and completely engaging despite the strange promises it makes to ...

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Juhi Chawla At: PVR & others Rated: 5.5/10 Well, all these  sardars ki to satak li . But  mainu ki?   Assi  to was merely accompanying these brawny  pind tey  sons of  sardard  for all the meat masala on offer — meat on their  chaudi chhaatis  with dancing nipples and  masala  in their unending  peg ke baad  duels. As I said,  mainu ki  even if bodies, tractors, bikes and cars are flying out of the screen every other minute and mostly without reason.  Mainu ki  if the exaggeration is slightly higher than the sardars’ sense of self importance.  Mainu ki  if the  badey  sardar ji  prefers to postpone his  shaadi  for 25 years because he wants to kill before he chills! Mainu ki  if I am made to get high on a Patiala peg of a Rohit Shetty-Priyadarshan-David Dhawan-Dabangg-type cocktail of une...

Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana Starring: Kunal Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Rajesh Sharma At: Delite Diamond & others Rated: 7/10 Don’t go by the glazed look into nothingness that Vinod Nagpal manages to maintain wonderfully throughout the movie. For, that does not signify the movie at all. This is no zombie film emerging from the  sarson ke khet  and the  dhabhas  alongside. Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana  is also not an over the top take on a small family living in a small village. It is a delicate balance between a dash of muted humour and even more muted pithies on a family member gone astray — and back. The film, though built on a very slight subject, pans out beautifully, replete as it is with moments that keep you interested. Everything in this movie is gentle and souffle light — be it the arresting role of a Punjabi  kudi  played by an arresting Huma Qureshi, or Kunal Kapoor’s lean mean unscrupulous character. The endearing...

Skyfall Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes At: PVR  Rated: 5/10 This one is anything but Bond — starkly, painfully and bewilderingly so — that too in its golden jubilee year!   Yes Mr Bond, you are 50, but who in his right frame of mind would like to shed his carefully built up, delightful identity so totally so as to make your creator turn in his grave? And what kind of Bond will want to give up his gizmos, his continental flings, his breath-taking action stunts and, not the least of all, his gorgeous women and cars to take to unexplained sentimentality and a loser’s resignation of all things good and happening?  Please tell me Mr Bond, what kind of Bond audience will like you to declare yourself dead and live in the anonymity of an alcoholic haze somewhere unknown and unsung merely because your boss asked your colleague to take the first shot knowing fully well that you are the ultimate escape artist?  And what kind of Bond ...

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane At: DT Cinema Rated: 7/10 He is a bear on heat but chances are you would still love him. And that despite the fact that he is also high on drugs, women and, well, sorry to say, sex sessions without the mandatory organs! He does it to women, not other stuffed bears as you might just think. And he talks too, all the time — like a drunk man at a bachelor party. He also has a job, where every time he messes up, he gets a promotion. Nothing deters him from having fun, least of all propriety of any kind. But behind all this overtly sexual mores, he is also a friend — a good one at that — much better than his human counterpart who dumps him to get a life with a girlfriend who can’t be with a 37-year-old man with a teddy bear! It is a well-done sexual comedy and Hollywood’s imagination in making a stuffed toy the centrepiece of a bawdy comedy needs to be applauded. Really, who would have thought that a stuffed toy, a Chr...

Cloud atlas Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon At: DT Cinemas & others Rated: 5/10 It has everything going for it — an awesome star ensemble, a part sci-fi, part period, part contemporary drama, a big canvas and a intricately intertwined stories of many eras. So why is that it sits uncomfortably on your shoulders. Perhaps, because it is just too complicated? Or, may be, because it gets to be overly ambitious in its bid to jump wide apart ages, or may, because it is an amalgamation of all these factors. Whatever it is, despite the presence of the likes of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and a host of other stars, Cloud Atlas does not entirely click or overawe. From 2041 to backwards into pre-historic times where clan king Tom Hanks converses in a strange language with sci-fi woman Halle Berry, the string gets caught in too many webs. Apparently, the message is that all lives have a bearing on future lives, that very many past actions s...

Rush Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Neha Dhupia, Sagarika Ghatge, Aditya Pancholi At: DT Cinema & others Rated: 3/10 First and foremost, the alleged Zee TV extortion scam notwith-standing, the visual media is still eons away from committing murders, rapes and arson merely to create breaking news. Yes, they are still irritatingly fixated on Breaking News but all they do for now is fall into a farcical coverage of events which should be pushed into capsules or be ignored. So, to see Emraan Hashmi as Editor-in-Chief of a 24-hour crime channel, anchoring a show which reaches the crime spot before any other channel — always — is far-fetched. As is the theme that selling news has become like selling illegal arms and ammunition. As a journalist, and sans a single kiss in any direction, Hashmi struggles to make his mark here. Not so much because of his less than potent acting skills but because the script is lean, not at all mean, and has a tendency to sag a bit too often. Neha Dh...

Ajab gazabb love Starring: Jackky Bhagnani, Kirron Kher, Nidhi Subbaiah, Darshan Jariwala At: DT Cinema Rated: 5.5/10 It is, indeed, an ajab gazab love — a riches to rags story of a auto-manufacturing giant. There are many ajab things to talk about here, one of them being a hyper camera which does not let you settle down and enjoy the comedy. Director Sanjay Gadhvi, with a Dhoom and YRF legacy behind him, got too opportunistic with this one. However, his intense bid to make it slick, happening and stylish put him in the paddock area. Too many bikini babes, too much of 8-pack Bhagnani, too much of staccato camera. All this put together took away from the comedy of it all — which should have been its primary aim. Having said this, the only reason you would see this film would be because of the absolute hilarity that Kirron Kher brings to her role. And you feel really really bad about the fact that Arshad Warsi as the south Indian servant-turned-maalik has such a small role i...

Chakravyuh Starring: Om Puri, Manoj Bajpai, Abhay Deol, Arjun Rampal At: PVR & others Rated: 7/10 Prakash Jha mounts are keenly awaited and mostly serenaded. Chakravyuh is no different. It has a simmering topicality, several reality bites, an expansive canvas and an issue that has gobbled up more than half of India — without a solution. Jha tries his best to not take sides here but, in the end, much like his protagonist Abhay Deol, he gets caught in the romanticism of a struggle for the unpossessed. He does give a keen look to the system which has allowed the Maoists to spread and the report card that he brings home to the viewers is not good at all for the establishment. Much like a firebrand Naxalite, he shows up the system for what it is — corrupt, incestuous with business and politics and ruthless with a law enforcement machinery crying for reform and sensitivity. Arjun Rampal as the upright police officer on the trail of notorious Naxal leaders in the badland...

Student of the year Starring; Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 The oomph here is male, overtly, rawly male. The bods, as Karan Johar would have them — they are ostensibly in college these boys (read males) but most of the time you will see them emerging out of the pool in a male Ursula Andress avataar — bheega, sexy and well, material enough for a gay wet dream. The abs here, mind you, are many more than six, the muscles seemingly run out of some Mr Universe’s body to sit pretty on Karan’s new finds Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, more Sid than Varun most times. In the middle of all this Karan wali worship of male bods, Johar suddenly remembers here and there that there is Alia too to show off. So she suddenly does a bikini shoot or a chhoti choli wala number to make her presence felt — rest of the time the boys think her to be a red-lipped pouting bimbo good to be on one rippling wala arm or the other. Then there’s a ...

Argo Starring; Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 In the 70s, America was doing things to Iran which it should not have. It had gotten a good man deposed to save its oil interests in the region and got a dummy Shah installed. The Shah was a picture of debauchery and atrocities and was, after a long rule, finally removed by the people of Iran who installed the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini at the helm. The Shah sought asylum in the US and got it. Enraged Iranians took to the streets and gheraoed the American embassy there. Fifty-six Americans were taken hostages and six managed to sneak out and take refuge at the Canadian ambassador’s residence. The hostage saga ended only after 444 days with all Americans being released from the embassy prison. But this story is about the great escape of those six who had managed to sneak out of the embassy but had to be rescued by a CIA operative (Ben Affleck) to get out of the vola...

Delhi safari Starring; Akshaye Khanna, Govinda, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani, Urmila Matondkar At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 Here comes an Indian animation that is entirely entertaining. No, you can’t compare the illustrations with the long-standing technological acumen of a Disney or something similar, but still Nikhil Advani’s animal kingdom comes across as mostly engrossing. The entirely Bollywoodised show, with soulful songs and peppy voice-overs you can instantly identify, not to mention the vintage Bollywood drama that sits pretty on the shoulders of the four-legged beings of a decimated environment, makes you laugh and come along with the motely campaigners against deforestation. Advani’s Delhi Safari is a typical love-romance-poignancy-family drama which not so subtly puts across the message of saving the earth by saving the fauna and flora. Urmila Matondkar as the recently widowed tigress, Govinda as the scheming and rabble-rousing monkey, Akshaye Khanna as the par...

  Makkhi Starring: Sudeep, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Nani At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 No, it is not an animation film — everyone in the movie is human, but for a small house fly. And what, you would think, can a fly do except hover irritatingly over your food and get smothered by the swish of your hand. Makkhi will tell you how wrong you can be. For this is one fly who is on a revenge path, who is in love with your heroine, who wears metal nails and eye casing designed by a micro artist. It is bigger, badder, faster than its species and it has vowed to let you into all the fun. As the baddie kills the heroine’s lover and his soul gets into a pupa, you know something fascinating is about to unfold. In Makkhi, the director has worked wonders with the visuals, with the animation and with the storyline all in one go. The result? A roller coaster of a different kind where you fly the heights of fun, taking revenge on a bad man riding on a makkhi ka badla. Surprisingly ...